Scope
Decreto 977 is Chile’s sanitary regulation for foods. Article 125 applies to metals in contact with foods and food raw materials. Article 160 sets maximum levels for listed heavy metals in specified foods and waters.
Exact limit and units
| Metal | Matrix | Limit | Unit | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenic | Metals in contact with foods and raw materials | 0.01 | percent by weight | composition of food-contact metal |
| Inorganic arsenic | Edible oils and fats | 0.1 | mg/kg | final product |
| Inorganic arsenic | Spread fats and fat mixtures | 0.1 | mg/kg | final product |
| Inorganic arsenic | Edible salt | 0.5 | mg/kg | final product |
| Inorganic arsenic | Mineral waters and bottled drinking waters | 0.01 | mg/L | final product |
| Inorganic arsenic | Polished rice | 0.2 | mg/kg | final product |
| Cadmium | Edible salt | 0.5 | mg/kg | final product |
| Cadmium | Table mineral water | 0.01 | mg/L | final product |
| Tin | Canned fruits and vegetables | 250 | mg/kg | final product |
| Tin | Table olives | 250 | mg/kg | final product |
| Tin | Canned fish and shellfish | 250 | mg/kg | final product |
| Tin | Fruit and vegetable juices except apple, grape, and blackcurrant | 200 | mg/kg | final product |
| Tin | Apple, grape, and blackcurrant juices | 150 | mg/kg | final product |
| Tin | Concentrated fruit juices except apple, grape, and blackcurrant | 250 | mg/kg | reconstituted product |
| Tin | Concentrated apple, grape, and blackcurrant juices | 150 | mg/kg | reconstituted product |
| Tin | Apricot, peach, pear, guava, and citrus nectars | 250 | mg/kg | final product |
| Tin | Blackcurrant and small-fruit nectars | 150 | mg/kg | final product |
| Tin | Listed canned meats in tinned containers | 200 | mg/kg | final product |
| Tin | Listed canned meats in other containers | 50 | mg/kg | final product |
Article 125 also states a 1 percent combined impurity cap for lead, antimony, zinc, copper, chromium, iron, and tin considered together; that combined cap is not split into species-specific register rows.
How tested
The extracted Article 160 table states limits in mg/kg of final product, with the water row for arsenic expressed in mg/L. The arsenic table note states that inorganic arsenic is only necessary to determine if the total-arsenic measurement exceeds the listed limit.
Enforcement posture
The rows are binding sanitary-regulation maximum levels under Chile’s food regulation. Covered foods and food-contact metals must meet the Article 125 and Article 160 limits.
History of changes
The local PDF is the Ley Chile reproduction of Decreto 977 generated on 5 August 2026. The heavy-metals table includes amendment annotations, including Decreto 7/2018 for the arsenic rows and DTO 475/2000 for the cadmium rows shown in the excerpt.
How it compares
Chile combines food contaminant rows and a food-contact-metal composition row in the same decree. The tin table is broader than many modern contaminant tables because it keeps separate juice, nectar, and canned-meat container categories.
Sources
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 | 1 source added; contamination-profile values revised; 7 sections added |