Overview
This single-author study measured twelve elements, including arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury, by ICP-MS in 87 samples of 21 locally grown fruit species from southern Poland, and linked them to soil fractions and health risk. Results are printed only by fruit group (berry, pome, stone and walnut), on a wet-weight basis derived from dry-weight data using standard water contents. Mercury, chromium and selenium were below detection in every fruit, and arsenic was detected only in walnut.
Key numbers
- Lead, berry fruits (n = 35): mean 0.166 mg/kg ww, max 0.713, 95th percentile 0.322 (Table 3).
- Lead, stone fruits (n = 28): mean 0.203 mg/kg ww, max 2.069 (Table 3).
- Cadmium, pome fruits (n = 18): mean 0.021 mg/kg ww, max 0.116 (Table 3).
- Arsenic, walnut (n = 6): mean 0.039 mg/kg ww, max 0.143; not detected in all other fruit groups (Table 3).
Methods (brief)
Washed fruit (walnut also peeled) was dried at 70 °C, ground and digested in nitric acid with hydrogen peroxide, then analyzed by ICP-MS with ICP-OES cross-checks. The white cabbage reference material BCR-679 gave recoveries of 83 to 124% for most elements. Non-detects were set to half the LOD for statistics.
Evidence Fitness
A reasonably sized regional survey with a reference material, but data are only grouped, so single fruits such as blueberry cannot be isolated. The Table 3 group means disagree with the means quoted in the Results text for many element and group pairs, and some SDs look like standard errors. Wet-weight values are calculated from assumed water contents, not measured moisture. For blueberry-muffin this is at most an ingredient proxy (berry fruit group) and is not linked to that page.