Overview
Alcívar and colleagues measured cadmium and lead by graphite furnace AAS in stems of four widely grown Ecuadorian sugarcane varieties and in panela, white sugar and brown sugar from the three best-selling national brands. Cadmium was below the LOQ in every sugar product, while lead was found only in one brand, at levels above the 0.5 mg/kg limit in panela and white sugar. The Ragnar variety carried far more lead than the others.
Key numbers
- Brand 1 lead: panela 2.3 ± 1.04, white sugar 1.6 ± 0.74, brown sugar 0.3 ± 0.08 mg/kg; brands 2 and 3 “<0.09” (Table 1).
- Cadmium “<0.035” mg/kg in all panela, white and brown sugar samples (Table 1).
- Sugarcane stems: Ragnar lead 4.32 ± 0.37 mg/kg and cadmium 0.150 ± 0.029 mg/kg; other varieties lead 0.122 to 0.376 mg/kg (Section 3.1).
Methods (brief)
Samples were ground, microwave-digested in nitric acid (EPA 3051) and analysed by graphite furnace AAS. CRM033 recoveries were 98% for cadmium and 99% for lead; LOQs 0.035 and 0.09 mg/kg; blanks, duplicates and spikes were run.
Evidence Fitness
Nine samples per product per brand from two cities, with reference material control; collection year is not stated and the methods (ten samples) and table (n = 9) disagree. Brand 1 drives all lead detections. White sugar is measured directly. For the sugar-cookies and barbecue-sauce pages the data are a sugar ingredient proxy for sugar-cookies and barbecue-sauce, which are not linked.