Overview
Barone and colleagues bought 100 processed pork products in Apulia between September and December 2018 and measured lead, cadmium, mercury, zinc, copper and chromium by atomic absorption. Table 1 gives the range and mean ± SD per product type on a wet-weight basis. Mean lead was above the EU 0.10 mg/kg meat limit in every product type, while cadmium and mercury were low.
Key numbers
- Lead: würstel 0.38 ± 0.11 µg/g (range 0.24-0.59), mortadella 0.34 ± 0.10, cured sausage 0.34 ± 0.14, raw ham 0.30 ± 0.12, salami 0.29 ± 0.11, baked ham 0.22 ± 0.04 µg/g wet weight (Table 1, p. 2829).
- Cadmium: means 0.01 to 0.03 µg/g, maximum 0.05 µg/g; non-detects in every product type (Table 1).
- Mercury: means 0.01 to 0.02 µg/g, maximum 0.05 µg/g (Table 1).
Methods (brief)
Nitric-perchloric acid digestion (sulfuric-nitric for mercury); flame AAS for zinc, graphite furnace AAS for lead, cadmium, chromium and copper, and hydride/cold-vapor generation for mercury. NIST SRM 1577c bovine liver recoveries were 93 to 108%, spike recoveries 96 to 99%. LODs: lead 10, cadmium 0.12, mercury 5 ng/g wet weight.
Evidence Fitness
A moderate retail sample (15 to 20 per product type) with CRM control. The printed lead LOQ (0.38 ng/g) is lower than the lead LOD (10 ng/g), so one limit is misprinted. The products are processed pork; the paper is a proxy for Turkey luncheon meat only in the sense of being sliced cured or cooked meat, and it does not measure turkey. Detection shares are given only as percentages in the text.