Overview
This study measured fatty acids and 21 elements by ICP-MS in raw pork leg, loin and tenderloin bought from producers and supermarkets in Transylvania, Romania, and estimated health risks. Arsenic, cadmium and lead were low in all three cuts, with lead highest in the leg. Results are on a fresh-weight basis.
Key numbers
- Lead: leg “0.06 ± 0.05”, loin “0.03 ± 0.02”, tenderloin “0.04 ± 0.04” mg/kg (Table 3, p. 9).
- Cadmium: leg “0.01 ± 0.01”, loin “0.00 ± 0.00”, tenderloin “0.00 ± 0.01” mg/kg (Table 3).
- Arsenic: leg “0.02 ± 0.02”, loin and tenderloin “0.01 ± 0.01” mg/kg (Table 3).
Methods (brief)
Fresh meat (500 mg) was microwave-digested with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide and analyzed by ICP-MS. Accuracy was checked with two standard reference materials, but recoveries and detection limits are not printed. Arsenic is total arsenic.
Evidence Fitness
A moderate-size, single-region set of retail and producer cuts with good instrumentation but results rounded to two decimals, so several cadmium and trace-element means print as 0.00 mg/kg. No LOD or sampling dates are given. Pork loin (longissimus dorsi) is the cut that pork chops come from, so this paper is direct, if raw, evidence for pork-chop.