Overview
Uranium is listed by Ufelle & Barchowsky 2021 among minor toxic metals for which toxicity has been described. The Essentials chapter does not provide a detailed uranium subsection, so this node is source-map context only.
Status
This page is a source-map stub created during the re-ingest of Ufelle & Barchowsky 2021. Substantive uranium-specific expansion awaits a dedicated ingest.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Heavy Metal Index have a detailed page on uranium in food yet?
Not yet. This page is a source-map stub created during the re-ingest of Ufelle & Barchowsky 2021, which lists uranium among minor toxic metals for which toxicity has been described but does not provide a detailed uranium subsection. Substantive uranium-specific synthesis awaits a dedicated ingest, so the page currently serves mainly as a map of the sources that mention uranium.
In which foods and beverages has uranium actually been measured?
The sources mapped on this page report uranium occurrence across a wide range of foods and beverages, including commercial milk and infant formulas (Largueza et al. 2026, Almeida et al. 2022), ready-to-eat baby purees (Henríquez-Hernández et al. 2023), rice (Gama et al. 2025), coffee beans (Albals et al. 2021), and edible seaweeds (Mosusu 2023). The page catalogs these as occurrence sources; it does not yet synthesize concentration values.
Is uranium in drinking water something researchers track?
Yes. Several sources mapped here assess uranium in drinking water, including a global review of heavy metals in drinking water (Olowoyo et al. 2026), a US contaminants review (Levin et al. 2024), and analyses of uranium in US community water systems (Ravalli et al. 2022, Martinez-Morata et al. 2022). The page lists these as occurrence and exposure sources rather than summarizing their findings.
Do any regulators set limits or monitoring programs for uranium in food or water?
The regulatory sources mapped here address uranium in several ways. The WHO drinking-water guidelines derive guideline values for uranium among other contaminants (WHO 2022), the FDA runs a compliance program covering uranium surveillance in food and foodware (FDA 2025) and includes uranium in its Total Diet Study (FDA 2022), and Hong Kong’s Centre for Food Safety sets maximum levels for uranium as one of its metallic contaminants (Centre for Food Safety 2019). This page does not reproduce the specific limit values.
Are infants and pregnant women covered in the uranium literature here?
Yes. The mapped sources include uranium in infant formula and baby purees, infant birth-cohort dietary exposure (Signes-Pastor et al. 2022), infant serum levels alongside gut microbiota (Yan et al. 2025), human breast milk (Bzikowska-Jura et al. 2024), and maternal soil ingestion during pregnancy (Lawluvi et al. 2026). These are listed as exposure and occurrence sources; the page does not yet draw conclusions about risk to these groups.
How is uranium measured in these food and water studies?
Several of the mapped studies measure uranium by ICP-MS, including analyses of baby purees (Henríquez-Hernández et al. 2023) and coffee beans (Albals et al. 2021). The FDA Total Diet Study documentation records uranium measurement limits of detection and QA/QC parameters by food category (FDA 2022), and a state-of-the-science review addresses uranium exposure biomarkers in blood, urine, and tissue (Martinez-Morata et al. 2023).
References
Works cited in this page’s text, in first-appearance order. This is not the full corpus for this page; it is only what the prose above draws on. The complete set of sources is listed under Sources below. Each title links to its source record, which carries the ingest receipt, the extracted values, and the file hash of the document it was built from.
- Toxic Effects of Metals (Chapter 23), in Casarett & Doull’s Essentials of Toxicology, Fourth EditionTextbook
- Essential and Potentially Toxic Elements in Commercial Milk Formulas: Health Risk Assessment Through a Systematic Review and Meta-analysisReview
- Toxic Metals and Metalloids in Infant Formulas Marketed in Brazil, and Child Health Risks According to the Target Hazard Quotients and Target Cancer RiskReview
- Concentration of Essential, Toxic, and Rare Earth Elements in Ready-to-Eat Baby Purees from the Spanish MarketReview
- Assessing trace elements in soils and rice: insights from the Baixo Vouga Lagunar (Portugal)Review
- Multi-element determination of essential and toxic metals in green and roasted coffee beans: A comparative study among different origins using ICP-MSReview
- Heavy metal contents in some edible seaweeds (Wakame, Kombu) in JapanThesis
- Heavy Metals Burden in Drinking Water: Global Patterns, Sources, and Public Health ImplicationsReview
- Drinking water quality in the United States: a review of contaminants, regulations, and health implicationsReview
- Sociodemographic inequalities in uranium and other metals in community water systems across the USA, 2006–11: a cross-sectional studyReview
- Nationwide geospatial analysis of county racial and ethnic composition and public drinking water arsenic and uraniumReview
- Guidelines for drinking-water quality: fourth edition incorporating the first and second addendaGovernment
- Compliance Program Guidance Manual: Toxic Elements in Food and Foodware, and Radionuclides in Food – Import and Domestic (Program 7304.019)Government
- Total Diet Study Report: Fiscal Years 2018-2020 Elements DataGovernment
- Guidelines on the Food Adulteration (Metallic Contamination) (Amendment) Regulation 2018Government
- Dietary Exposure to Essential and Non-essential Elements During Infants’ First Year of Life in the New Hampshire Birth Cohort StudyReview
- Association between infants’ serum levels of 26 metals and gut microbiota: a hospital-based cross-sectional study in ChinaReview
- Essential and non-essential element concentrations in human milk samples and the assessment of infants’ exposureReview
- Maternal geophagy in Ghana: heavy metal exposure and health risks during pregnancyReview
- FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical Results KeyGovernment
- A State-of-the-Science Review on Metal BiomarkersReview
Sources
Auto-generated from source-page frontmatter. The "Used on this page for" column is populated by the orchestrator's POPULATE-SOURCE-LEGEND action; pending entries appear as *[awaiting synthesis]*.
| # | Citation | Year | Type | Used on this page for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Largueza et al. 2026. Essential and Potentially Toxic Elements in Commercial Milk Formulas: Health Risk Assessment Through a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis, Biological Trace Element Research | 2026 | Peer-reviewed | BR/EU/US Al, iAs, tAs, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, MeHg, Mn, Ni, Pb, U, Zn occurrence in Systematic review with meta-analysis of 30 observational studies (PRISMA, OSF.IO/2YNKB registered), 18 with pooled meta-analysis data, covering three… (n=30) |
| 2 | Lawluvi et al. 2026. Maternal geophagy in Ghana: heavy metal exposure and health risks during pregnancy, Frontiers in Public Health | 2026 | Peer-reviewed | U exposure from maternal geophagy: soil ingestion pathway and fetal/infant exposure implications |
| 3 | Olowoyo et al. 2026. Heavy Metals Burden in Drinking Water: Global Patterns, Sources, and Public Health Implications, Water 18(8): 886 | 2026 | Review | global Pb, Cd, tAs, Cr, Ni, Fe, Cu, Zn, U, Mn, tHg, Sb, Se occurrence in Systematic narrative review; 66 peer-reviewed articles published 2015–2024 (sourced from ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, PubMed) reporting heavy-metal concentrations in… (n=66) |
| 4 | Du et al. 2025. Heavy metal exposures in aerodigestive clinic cohort of infants with reflux or dysphagia, Scientific Reports | 2025 | Peer-reviewed | US tAs, iAs, Pb, tHg, Cd, Sn, Cr, Ni, U occurrence in Infants under 1 year of age with reflux or oropharyngeal dysphagia seen at Boston Children’s Hospital aerodigestive clinic,… (n=56) |
| 5 | FDA 2025. Compliance Program Guidance Manual: Toxic Elements in Food and Foodware, and Radionuclides in Food – Import and Domestic (Program 7304.019), US Food and Drug Administration | 2025 | Government report | FDA Compliance Program 7304.019: U surveillance in food and foodware, analytical methods and enforcement thresholds |
| 6 | Gama et al. 2025. Assessing trace elements in soils and rice: insights from the Baixo Vouga Lagunar (Portugal), Environmental Geochemistry and Health | 2025 | Peer-reviewed | PT tAs, Pb, U occurrence in Rice grain samples (white Carolino 2020, 2021, 2022, wild, brown) from Baixo Vouga Lagunar paddy fields, northern Portugal (n=5) |
| 7 | Krasnopyorova et al. 2025. Trace element composition of drinking water in Almaty, Kazakhstan, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health | 2025 | Peer-reviewed | KZ As, Cd, Pb, Ni, U, Hg, Al, Cr, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu occurrence in Drinking water samples from municipal tap water and bottled water sources in Almaty, Kazakhstan, collected across seasons in… (n=78) |
| 8 | Yan et al. 2025. Association between infants’ serum levels of 26 metals and gut microbiota: a hospital-based cross-sectional study in China, Frontiers in Microbiology 16:1669475 | 2025 | Peer-reviewed | Infant serum U and gut microbiota composition associations, hospital-based cross-sectional study |
| 9 | Bzikowska-Jura et al. 2024. Essential and non-essential element concentrations in human milk samples and the assessment of infants’ exposure, Scientific Reports 14:8140 | 2024 | Peer-reviewed | PL Al, tAs, Ba, Be, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, tHg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sn, Tl, Th, U, V occurrence in Thirty human-milk samples from exclusively breastfeeding mothers in Warsaw, Poland, collected 4-6 weeks postpartum (n=30) |
| 10 | Kim et al. 2024. Nutrients and non-essential metals in darkibor kale grown at urban and rural farms: a pilot study, PLOS ONE | 2024 | Peer-reviewed | U concentrations in leafy vegetables (n=42) |
| 11 | Krasnopyorova et al. 2024. Trace Element Composition of Surface Water in Almaty City and Human Health Risk Assessment | 2024 | Peer-reviewed | KZ Pb, Cd, As, Ni, Cr, Al, U, Hg, Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, Co, Be, Li, Mo, Se, Ba, Sr, V occurrence in Surface water samples from 4 rivers (Bolshaya Almatinka, Malaya Almatinka, Esentai, Kargalinka), 16 sampling sites, 4 seasons (2023),… (n=64) |
| 12 | Levin et al. 2024. Drinking water quality in the United States: a review of contaminants, regulations, and health implications, Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology | 2024 | Peer-reviewed | US Pb, tAs, U, Cd, tHg, Cr occurrence in Review of US public water system monitoring data and epidemiological studies |
| 13 | Okonofua et al. 2024. Analysis of Bioaccumulation of Heavy Metals in Water, Cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) and Tilapia Fish (Oreochromis niloticus) from Unreclaimed Mining Pits, Earth Sciences Pakistan | 2024 | Peer-reviewed | NG Pb, Cd, tHg, Cu, Ni, Mn, Zn, U occurrence in Five unreclaimed tin-mining pit sites (BKKS I–V) in Bukuru, Jos South LGA, Plateau State, Nigeria, with a control… (n=48) |
| 14 | Henríquez-Hernández et al. 2023. Concentration of Essential, Toxic, and Rare Earth Elements in Ready-to-Eat Baby Purees from the Spanish Market, Nutrients 15(14):3251 | 2023 | Peer-reviewed | U concentrations in ready-to-eat baby purees (n=159) by ICP-MS |
| 15 | Idris et al. 2023. Introduction of adsorption techniques for heavy metals remediation, Emerging Techniques for Treatment of Toxic Metals from Wastewater (Elsevier book chapter 1), pp. 1-17 | 2023 | Review | Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni, Cu, Hg, As, Zn, Co, U occurrence in Narrative review of adsorption techniques for removing heavy metals from industrial wastewater. No primary sampling. Authors affiliated with… |
| 16 | Martinez-Morata et al. 2023. A State-of-the-Science Review on Metal Biomarkers, Current Environmental Health Reports, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 215-249 | 2023 | Peer-reviewed | State-of-the-science review on metal biomarkers: blood, urine, and tissue matrices for U exposure assessment |
| 17 | Mosusu 2023. Heavy metal contents in some edible seaweeds (Wakame, Kombu) in Japan, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Environmental Science (Master’s thesis abstract) | 2023 | Thesis | JP/CN/KR Cr, Ni, Cd, Pb, U occurrence in Twenty-two commercial seaweed samples sold in Japan: Wakame (Undaria pinnatifida), Kombu (Laminaria spp.), Hijiki (Hizikia fusiform), and sea… (n=22) |
| 18 | Pradhan 2023. Inductive coupled plasma analysis of Heracleum nepalense D. Don (Umbelliferae), Exploratory Animal and Medical Research | 2023 | Peer-reviewed | IN Pb, Cd, tAs, Hg, Al, Cr, Ni, Sn, Sb, U occurrence in Three ICP replicas from mature Heracleum nepalense fruit collected in Sikkim, India (n=3) |
| 19 | Almeida et al. 2022. Toxic Metals and Metalloids in Infant Formulas Marketed in Brazil, and Child Health Risks According to the Target Hazard Quotients and Target Cancer Risk, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19(18):11178 | 2022 | Peer-reviewed | U concentrations and health risk assessment in infant formula |
| 20 | FDA 2022. Total Diet Study Report: Fiscal Years 2018-2020 Elements Data, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Total Diet Study Program | 2022 | Government report | US Pb, Cd, tAs, iAs, tHg, Ni, Cr, U, Sb occurrence in Composite TDS samples across 307 foods (3,241 food/beverage samples + 35 bottled-water samples) collected across six US regions… (n=3276) |
| 21 | FDA 2022. FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical Results Key, FDA Total Diet Study supporting documentation | 2022 | Government report | FDA TDS FY2018-2020 analytical key: U measurement LODs and QA/QC parameters by food category |
| 22 | FDA 2022. FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical Results, FDA Total Diet Study | 2022 | Government dataset | US-FDA Pb, Cd, tAs, iAs, tHg, Ni, Cr, U concentrations |
| 23 | Martinez-Morata et al. 2022. Nationwide geospatial analysis of county racial and ethnic composition and public drinking water arsenic and uranium, Nature Communications | 2022 | Peer-reviewed | US iAs, U occurrence in US county-level population-weighted mean estimates of community water system (CWS) arsenic concentrations from 2006–2011 (N=2585 counties) and uranium… (n=2631) |
| 24 | Ben et al. 2022. Natural Clays as Adsorbents for the Removal of Heavy Metals from Phosphogypsum, Water-Energy-Nexus in the Ecological Transition (Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation), Springer, pp. 433–436 | 2022 | Peer-reviewed | TN Cd, Cr, U occurrence in Three Tunisian natural clay deposits (Haidoudi, Romana, Hmaymet) from the Gabes region of southern Tunisia, plus phosphogypsum waste… |
| 25 | Muimba-Kankolongo et al. 2022. Impacts of Trace Metals Pollution of Water, Food Crops, and Ambient Air on Population Health in Zambia and the DR Congo, Journal of Environmental and Public Health | 2022 | Peer-reviewed | ZM/CD Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn, Co, tAs, U, Cd, Cu occurrence in Cross-media assessment of trace-metal contamination and health implications in mining areas of Zambia and the DR Congo |
| 26 | Ravalli et al. 2022. Sociodemographic inequalities in uranium and other metals in community water systems across the USA, 2006–11: a cross-sectional study, The Lancet Planetary Health | 2022 | Peer-reviewed | US tAs, U, Ba, Cr, Se, Cd, Sb, Hg, tl, Be occurrence in 37,915 community water systems (CWSs) across the USA; EPA SYR2 and SYR3 compliance monitoring records 2000–2011 (n=37915) |
| 27 | Sarkar et al. 2022. Drinking Water Quality and Public Health in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal: Coliform Bacteria, Chemical Contaminants, and Health Status of Consumers, Journal of Environmental and Public Health | 2022 | Peer-reviewed | NP Al, tAs, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, tHg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sb, Se, Tl, U, V, Zn occurrence in 35 public drinking water sources (7 dug wells, 18 tube wells, 9 stone spouts, 1 municipal tap) in… (n=35) |
| 28 | Signes-Pastor et al. 2022. Dietary Exposure to Essential and Non-essential Elements During Infants’ First Year of Life in the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study, Exposure and Health | 2022 | Peer-reviewed | US iAs, Pb, Cd, tHg, Al, Sb, Sn, U, V, Ni, Mo occurrence in New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study infants: subgroup 1 had paired urine samples at approximately 6 weeks and 1… (n=187) |
| 29 | WHO 2022. Guidelines for drinking-water quality: fourth edition incorporating the first and second addenda, Geneva: World Health Organization | 2022 | Government report | WHO/Global Pb, Cd, iAs, tAs, tHg, Ni, Al, Cr, Sn, U, Sb occurrence in Drinking-water consumers globally; guideline values derived for a 60 kg adult consuming 2 L/day, with bottle-fed infants flagged… |
| 30 | Albals et al. 2021. Multi-element determination of essential and toxic metals in green and roasted coffee beans: A comparative study among different origins using ICP-MS, Science Progress | 2021 | Peer-reviewed | JO Pb, Cd, Al, Cr, Ni, U occurrence in Green and roasted coffee beans from five origins (Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Yemen) sold on the Jordanian market (n=56) |
| 31 | Gfeller et al. 2021. Mercury mobility, colloid formation and methylation in a polluted Fluvisol as affected by manure application and flooding-draining cycle, Biogeosciences | 2021 | Peer-reviewed | CH tHg, MeHg, Mn, Fe, Cu, tAs, Cr, Co, Ni, Zn, Cd, Pb, V, U, Ba occurrence in Triplicate microcosms using two Hg-polluted agricultural Fluvisol soils from the Rhone Valley, Switzerland: cornfield high-Hg low-carbon soil and… (n=12) |
| 32 | Marques et al. 2021. Essential and Non-essential Trace Elements in Milks and Plant-Based Drinks, Biological Trace Element Research | 2021 | Peer-reviewed | U concentrations in milk and dairy by ICP-MS |
| 33 | Ufelle et al. 2021. Toxic Effects of Metals (Chapter 23), in Casarett & Doull’s Essentials of Toxicology, Fourth Edition, Casarett & Doull’s Essentials of Toxicology, Fourth Edition. McGraw Hill Education | 2021 | Textbook chapter | Toxicology reference text on uranium: mechanisms of toxicity, target organs, and clinical manifestations |
| 34 | Centre for Food Safety 2019. Guidelines on the Food Adulteration (Metallic Contamination) (Amendment) Regulation 2018, USDA Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK1922, relaying the Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety Guidelines for the Food Adulteration (Metallic Contamination) (Amendment) Regulation 2018 (Cap. 132V sub. leg.) | 2019 | Government report | HK Sb, tAs, iAs, Ba, B, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Mn, MeHg, tHg, Ni, Se, Sn, U occurrence in Not a sampling study. Regulatory document setting maximum levels (MLs) for 14 metallic contaminants across food and food… |
| 35 | Ownsworth et al. 2019. Tracing the natural and anthropogenic influence on the trace elemental chemistry of estuarine macroalgae and the implications for human consumption, Science of the Total Environment | 2019 | Peer-reviewed | GB/JP tAs, iAs, Pb, Cd, Ni, U, Co, Cu, Zn, Ag occurrence in Fifty brown macroalgae samples collected from 25 Forth Estuary/Firth of Forth locations in Scotland, plus four Laminaria japonica… (n=55) |
| 36 | Pankavec et al. 2019. Mineral Constituents of Conserved White Button Mushrooms: Similarities and Differences, Roczniki Państwowego Zakładu Higieny (Annals of the National Institute of Hygiene) | 2019 | Peer-reviewed | PL/EU Pb, Cd, tHg, tAs, Ni, Al, Cr, U, Sb occurrence in 100 unit packages of commercially available pickled white button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) from 6 manufacturers sold in Gdańsk,… (n=100) |
| 37 | Aldayel et al. 2018. Heavy Metals Concentration in Facial Cosmetics, Natural Products Chemistry & Research 6(1): 1000303 | 2018 | Peer-reviewed | SA Pb, Cd, tAs, tHg, Al, Cr, Ni, Sn, Sb, U, Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, Co, Ag, Ba, V, Mo, Li occurrence in Thirty facial-cosmetic samples representing nine ‘most expensive’ facial-cosmetic brands purchased from the Saudi Arabian (Riyadh) market. Four product… (n=30) |
| 38 | Youssao et al. 2018. Levels of Minor and Trace Elements of Some Commercial Fruit Juices and Syrup Produced in Artisanal and Semi-Industrial Units in Benin Republic, International Journal of Chemistry | 2018 | Peer-reviewed | BJ/FR Al, tAs, Ba, Be, Cd, Hg, Pb, Sn, Tl, U occurrence in 92 fruit-juice and syrup samples: 85 Benin-produced bottled pineapple juices/cocktails from artisanal and semi-industrial units, 6 French pineapple… (n=92) |
| 39 | Azzaya et al. 2017. Arsenic occurrence in water bodies in Kharaa river basin, Mongolian Journal of Chemistry | 2017 | Peer-reviewed | MN tAs, U occurrence in One hundred river, spring, and deep-well water samples collected in the Kharaa river basin, Mongolia, including samples from… (n=100) |
| 40 | Senior et al. 2017. Baseline Assessment of Groundwater Quality in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, 2014, U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5073 | 2017 | Government report | US As, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Pb, Li, Mo, Ni, Zn, Ba, Fe, Mn, Sr, U occurrence in Eighty-nine domestic wells sampled in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, during July-September 2014 for baseline groundwater quality before potential extensive… (n=89) |
| 41 | Magdas et al. 2012. Isotopic and Elemental Determination in Some Romanian Apple Fruit Juices, The Scientific World Journal | 2012 | Peer-reviewed | RO Pb, Cd, tAs, Ni, Cr, U occurrence in 31 organic single-strength apple juices from four Transylvanian regions (Alba, Maramures, Salaj, Cluj), Romania; 2010 harvest (n=31) |
Update history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.
| Commit | Date | Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| a8052bb | 2026-08-09 | major | 21 sources added; contamination-profile values revised; 12 sections added |