Heavy metals in Beer

Overview

This provisional ingredient page records source-specific measurements for beer. Its population contamination profile has not been synthesized. See Ingredients for the ingredient inventory.

Heavy metal contamination profile

The profile fields remain pending until an evidence synthesis supports a population estimate. Source observations are listed separately below.

Reported measurements from source notes are below. The contamination profile on this page is still pending. No typical or upper-tail value is calculated here, and no certification limit is stated.

Reported measurements

The 2024 note reports four traditional alcoholic rice beers from Assam, India, measured by atomic absorption spectroscopy after wet acid digestion. Per-beer replication is not reported. All concentrations below are mg/L as the note prints them. The note says Table 1 reports total metal-content load per beer in µg/mL, and that 1 µg/mL = 1 mg/L. This page repeats that statement and does not apply a further conversion. Those totals are 254.998 µg/mL (Pati Rabha), 256.297 µg/mL (Koch Rabha), 321.226 µg/mL (Rangdani Rabha), and 191.299 µg/mL (Sonowal Kachari). The note says the high standard deviations reflect potassium and sodium in the totals. These are not single-metal concentrations.

Summary ranges: cadmium 0.002 to 0.008 mg/L; cobalt 0 to 0.008 mg/L; total chromium 0 to 0.012 mg/L; copper 0.092 to 0.121 mg/L; iron 1.09 to 1.56 mg/L; lead 0.09 to 0.19 mg/L; manganese 1.67 to 2.53 mg/L; nickel 0.024 to 0.094 mg/L; zinc 0.639 to 1.678 mg/L; potassium 175.8 to 290.8 mg/L; sodium 9.7 to 25.8 mg/L.

Pati Rabha sticky-rice beer: cadmium 0.008 mg/L, lead 0.130 mg/L, nickel 0.094 mg/L, copper 0.190 mg/L, iron 1.130 mg/L, manganese 2.530 mg/L, zinc 0.716 mg/L. Cobalt and total chromium were below the estimated limit, and the note does not print a number for those two cells.

Koch Rabha sticky-rice beer: cadmium 0.005 mg/L, cobalt 0.008 mg/L, total chromium 0.012 mg/L, lead 0.190 mg/L, nickel 0.024 mg/L, copper 0.119 mg/L, iron 1.210 mg/L, manganese 1.670 mg/L, zinc 0.639 mg/L.

Rangdani Rabha Janga: cadmium 0.002 mg/L, cobalt 0.001 mg/L, total chromium 0.002 mg/L, lead 0.090 mg/L, nickel 0.046 mg/L, copper 0.121 mg/L, iron 1.560 mg/L, manganese 1.850 mg/L, zinc 0.954 mg/L.

Sonowal Kachari Rohi: cadmium 0.003 mg/L, total chromium 0.012 mg/L, lead 0.161 mg/L, nickel 0.064 mg/L, copper 0.092 mg/L, iron 1.090 mg/L, manganese 2.100 mg/L, zinc 1.678 mg/L. Cobalt was below the estimated limit, and the note does not print a number for that cell.

The summary copper range is 0.092 to 0.121 mg/L beside Pati Rabha copper 0.190 mg/L. This page repeats both and does not choose one. The summary lead range is 0.09 to 0.19 mg/L beside per-beer lead of 0.130 mg/L, 0.190 mg/L, 0.090 mg/L, and 0.161 mg/L. This page repeats both and does not choose one. The summary prints cobalt as 0 to 0.008 mg/L and total chromium as 0 to 0.012 mg/L beside beers described as below the estimated limit. This page repeats both and does not choose one. Chromium in the note is total chromium, not hexavalent chromium. The authors compare the summary ranges with WHO drinking-water guideline values applied to these beers. The note does not print those guideline numbers in the key-numbers list, and this page does not supply them. Estimated daily intakes and target hazard quotients in the note are exposure estimates, not beer concentrations, and are not repeated here. Metal Contents in Traditional Alcoholic Rice Beers Prepared by Rabha and Sonowal Kachari Tribes of Assam, India

Beer lots and gut studies of the metals measured here

Brewing and fermentation change a product’s own microbiota. That is a different question from how lead, cadmium, nickel, chromium, copper, iron, or zinc change the gut. A brewery quality file should not treat a gut paper as a fermentation result, or a plate count as a gut result. The studies below match metals reported for beer on this page, in the models those papers actually used.

Eggers et al. 2023, per WikiBiome source summary, DOI 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1193919, followed 123 children in the Mexico City PROGRESS cohort. Maternal blood lead means were 33.6 µg/L in the second trimester and 34.9 µg/L in the third. Stool metagenomes at ages 9 to 11 showed lower Bacteroides caccae with lead exposure. Weighted quantile sum regression gave a negative overall mixture effect (beta = -0.17) in both trimesters. The direction is prenatal lead toward the childhood gut microbiota. The summary does not support a lead concentration in food.

Zhang et al. 2015, per WikiBiome source summary, DOI 10.1021/acs.chemrestox.5b00237, gave mice 10 mg/L cadmium in drinking water for 10 weeks. Firmicutes and gamma-proteobacteria decreased in feces after 4 weeks, and Firmicutes decreased in cecum contents after 10 weeks. The direction is cadmium toward gut microbiota, alongside hepatic energy-metabolism changes in the same animals. The summary does not name a food.

Richardson et al. 2018, per WikiBiome source summary, DOI 10.1038/s41598-018-24931-w, gavaged Sprague-Dawley rats for 5 days with sodium arsenite, cadmium chloride, sodium dichromate, cobalt chloride, or nickel chloride, 5 rats per cohort. The note does not print the milligram doses. Observed OTUs and Shannon diversity were lower for arsenic, chromium, and nickel (p < 0.05). Differential genera numbered 37 for nickel, 17 for arsenic, 5 for cadmium, and 10 for chromium. Sodium dichromate is a hexavalent chromium salt, so the chromium arm is not a total-chromium result. The direction is short oral exposure toward the rat gut microbiota.

Feng et al. 2022, per WikiBiome source summary, DOI 10.1038/s41522-022-00326-8, randomized 152 occupationally exposed workers in Pakistan, 76 in each arm, to yogurt with Pediococcus acidilactici GR-1 or to conventional yogurt for 12 weeks. In the probiotic arm, blood copper fell 34.45 percent, from 1,246 ± 20.7 to 817 ± 145.1 µg/L, and blood nickel fell 38.34 percent, from 4.855 ± 3.392 to 2.994 ± 1.942 µg/L (both p < 0.0001). Fecal copper and fecal nickel rose. The direction is a microbiota intervention toward copper and nickel body burden, not a concentration of either metal in this ingredient.

Chen et al. 2021, per WikiBiome source summary, DOI 10.1128/Spectrum.00483-21, fed C57BL/6 mice diets with 0, 30, 150, or 600 mg/kg zinc for 4 weeks and for 8 weeks. A 4-week diet with no added zinc increased Proteobacteria and Desulfovibrio. An 8-week diet with 150 mg/kg zinc suppressed total short-chain fatty acids, butyric acid, acetic acid, and short-chain-fatty-acid-producing genera. A 600 mg/kg diet decreased Shannon diversity. The mouse count is not in the note. The direction is dietary zinc status toward cecal microbiota. The diets are experimental, not this ingredient.

Bao et al. 2024, per WikiBiome source summary, DOI 10.3390/ijms25020727, is a review of iron homeostasis and gut microbiota. The note states that iron deficiency anemia was associated with lower Bacillota and higher Bacteroidota, Pseudomonadota, and Patescibacteria, and that iron-deficient women had lower fecal Lactobacillus. It also states that iron supplementation increased Enterobacteriaceae and decreased Lactobacillus in infants, and that iron fortification increased Bacteroidetes in African children. Sample sizes are not in the note. The direction summarized is iron status toward gut microbiota. The review does not test this ingredient.

Study table

What remains uncertain

No study cited here gave beer to people or animals and then sequenced the gut. Chromium in the rat gavage was a hexavalent salt, which is not the same species as total chromium on a beer panel. Iron evidence is a review, and the occupational yogurt trial is not a brewing trial.

FDA TDS FY2018–FY2020 source observations

FDA measured the prepared foods named below. Each row describes that food and preparation, not every form of this ingredient. Values are µg/kg (ppb) on the FDA sample basis. ND means not detected; it is not a measured zero. Reporting limits can vary between composites. FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical Results

References

Works cited in this page’s text, in first-appearance order. See Sources for this page’s source inventory. Each title links to a source record with bibliographic details, reported findings, and document provenance.

1. Metal Contents in Traditional Alcoholic Rice Beers Prepared by Rabha and Sonowal Kachari Tribes of Assam, IndiaBhattacharya B and Deka DC · Asian Journal of Chemistry · 2024 · doi.org/10.14233/ajchem.2024.30782Peer-reviewed
2. Prenatal lead exposure is negatively associated with the gut microbiome in childhoodEggers S, Midya V, Bixby M, Gennings C, Torres-Olascoaga LA, Walker RW, et al. · Frontiers in Microbiology · 2023 · doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1193919Peer-reviewed
3. Subchronic Exposure of Mice to Cadmium Perturbs Their Hepatic Energy Metabolism and Gut MicrobiomeSongbin Zhang, Yuanxiang Jin, Zhaoyang Zeng, Zhenzhen Liu, and Zhengwei Fu · Chemical Research in Toxicology · 2015 · doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrestox.5b00237Peer-reviewed
4. Exposure to toxic metals triggers unique responses from the rat gut microbiotaRichardson JB, Dancy BCR, Horton CL, Lee YS, Madejczyk MS, Xu Z, et al. · Scientific Reports · 2018 · doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-24931-wPeer-reviewed
5. Human supplementation with Pediococcus acidilactici GR-1 decreases heavy metal levels through modifying the gut microbiota and metabolomeFeng P, Yang J, Zhao S, Ling Z, Han R, Wu Y, et al. · npj Biofilms and Microbiomes · 2022 · doi.org/10.1038/s41522-022-00326-8Peer-reviewed
6. Effect of long-term and short-term imbalanced zinc manipulation on gut microbiota and screening for microbial markers sensitive to zinc statusChen L, Wang Z, Wang P, Yu X, Ding H, Wang Z, et al. · Microbiology Spectrum · 2021 · doi.org/10.1128/Spectrum.00483-21Peer-reviewed
7. Mechanism of Iron Ion Homeostasis in Intestinal Immunity and Gut Microbiota RemodelingBao H, Wang Y, Xiong H, Xia Y, Cui Z, and Liu L · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2024 · doi.org/10.3390/ijms25020727Peer-reviewed
8. FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical ResultsU.S. Food and Drug Administration · FDA Total Diet Study · 2022 · www.fda.govDataset

Sources

Sources catalogued for this page. The last column says how each source is used here.

Update history

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