Hardisson et al. 2017 — Aluminium exposure through the diet

This 2017 narrative review compiles aluminium (Al) concentration data from published studies across multiple food matrices and drink types, with the aim of estimating total dietary intake and comparing it to health-based guidance values. The authors find that vegetables (mean 16.8 mg/kg), fish and seafood (mean 11.9 mg/kg), and roots and tubers (mean 9.60 mg/kg) carry the highest Al concentrations among food groups, while processed cheese manufactured with sodium aluminium phosphate additives can reach extreme concentrations (470 mg/kg). Estimated dietary intakes calculated against Spanish population consumption data and EFSA’s Tolerable Weekly Intake (TWI) of 1 mg/kg body weight per week indicate that vegetables account for 32.5% of weekly Al intake in both children and adults, while fruits account for 29.4% in children and 18.2% in adults.

Key numbers

Drinks (mg/L unless noted)

• Drinking water, Spain: mean 0.12 ± 0.06 (n=20, ICP-OES)
• Mineral/spring/table water, Germany: mean 2 (n=171, ICP-MS)
• Fruit juice and fruit juice drinks, Germany: mean 3 (n=59, ICP-MS)
• Wine, Spain: mean 2.42 ± 2.03 (n=20, ICP-OES)
• Tea infusions, Jordan: mean 2.1 ± 0.1 (n=3, FAAS/GFAAS)
• Tea infusion value reported in narrative text: 312 ± 18 µg/g (Sweileh et al.; unit as reported)

Vegetables (mg/kg)

• Squash, carrots, marrow, cabbage, watercress, spinach, Spain: mean 27.47 ± 38.47 (n=20, ICP-OES)
• Baked potato, USA: mean 26
• Cooked green beans, USA: mean 3.4

Fruit (mg/kg)

• Banana, Spain: mean 32.80 ± 33.05 (n=20, ICP-OES)
• Peaches, pears, plums, Spain: mean 9.68 ± 6.88 (n=20, ICP-OES)

Meat (mg/kg)

• Viscera, Spain: mean 11.19 ± 6.42 (n=20, ICP-OES)
• Red meat, Spain: mean 9.31 ± 4.85 (n=40, ICP-OES)
• Poultry/rabbit, Spain: mean 6.35 ± 2.83 (n=20, ICP-OES)
• Porcine muscle, France: 0.21 (ICP-MS)

Dairy (mg/kg)

• Processed American cheese slices, USA: mean 470 ± 200 (FAAS/GFAAS) — attributed to sodium aluminium phosphate additive
• Processed cheese, USA: 29.7
• Whole milk, Spain: mean 0.37 ± 0.09 (n=20, ICP-OES)

Fish (mg/kg)

• Oily fish, Spain/Morocco/South Africa/Mauritania: mean 3.90 ± 1.97 (n=20, ICP-OES)
• White fish, same origins: mean 3.57 ± 3.23 (n=20, ICP-OES)
• Trachurus genera (horse mackerel), Turkey: range 1.343–49.24 (n=60, ICP-MS)
• Fish, USA: mean 0.40 (Soni et al.)

Seafood (mg/kg)

• Warty sea squirts (S. plicata), South Korea: mean 204.6 ± 166.4 (n=66, ICP-OES) — highest reported in the review
• Sea urchin (A. crassispina), South Korea: mean 26.9 ± 30.1 (n=26, ICP-OES)
• Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis), Spain: 10.2 (ICP-MS)

Seaweed (mg/kg)

• Gulf weed, South Korea: mean 52.1 ± 7.34 (n=15, ICP-MS) — highest among seaweeds
• Red seaweed, Asian/EU: mean 27.1 ± 22.6 (n=18, ICP-OES)
• Laver, South Korea: mean 15.5 ± 9.36 (n=53, ICP-MS)

Estimated dietary intake vs TWI (Spanish population)

• Children (7–12 years, 34.48 kg): vegetables 1.60 mg/day and 32.5% of TWI/week; fruits 1.45 mg/day and 29.4%; fish and seafood 0.75 mg/day and 15.2%; milk/derivates 1.31 mg/day and 26.6%; meat/derivates 0.92 mg/day and 18.7%
• Adults (≥17 years, 68.48 kg): vegetables 3.18 mg/day and 32.5%; fruits 1.78 mg/day and 18.2%; fish and seafood 1.12 mg/day and 11.4%; milk/derivates 1.07 mg/day and 10.9%; meat/derivates 0.99 mg/day and 10.1%
• EFSA TWI: 1 mg Al/kg body weight/week
• FAO/WHO PTWI: 2 mg Al/kg body weight/week (twice the EFSA value)
• EFSA baseline EU exposure estimate: 28.6-214 µg/kg body weight per day

Methods (brief)

Literature review of studies published from 1985 to 2017 retrieved via Web of Science, MEDLINE (PubMed), Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and Universidad de La Laguna library holdings. Inclusion criteria required quality-control use of certified reference materials. Studies were classified into “before 2000” and “after 2000” periods. Analytical methods compiled across cited studies include ICP-OES, ICP-AES, ICP-MS, GFAAS, and FAAS; primary LODs range from 0.003 ng/mL (ICP-MS) to 30 ng/mL (FAAS). Dietary intake estimated using mean Al concentrations compiled from the review and Spanish population consumption data from AESAN.

Implications

Certification: Fish and seafood as a food group carries a mean Al of 11.9 mg/kg in this review, second only to vegetables, but with extreme outliers in filter-feeding marine organisms (sea squirts up to 204.6 mg/kg). Processed cheeses using aluminium-based additives can reach ~470 mg/kg, an additive-driven pathway rather than environmental contamination. The review is broad and compiled from secondary literature, so it is best used as context for Al exposure pathways rather than as a product-specific distribution.

Courses: This review usefully illustrates how food-additive Al (sodium aluminium phosphate in processed cheese) and environmental Al (from soil acidification and aquatic pathways) represent distinct exposure routes requiring different control levers.

App: The mean values compiled here (11.9 mg/kg fish/seafood; 16.8 mg/kg vegetables) provide broad literature context for Al in those ingredient categories, but the review does not provide primary product-level rows for a single ingredient profile.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• fish
• seafood
• seaweed
• vegetables
• fruit
• meat
• milk-and-dairy
• eggs
• tea
• water
• beverages
• processed-american-cheese
• seafood
• tea
• fresh-fish
• aluminum

Verification notes

• 2026-05-18 Codex merge-enhance: matched DOI/raw path to the manual-fetch PDF, replaced the generic manual-fetch handle, added DOI access URL and PDF SHA-256, corrected invalid taxonomy slugs, and corrected the EFSA baseline exposure range to 28.6-214 µg/kg body weight per day per the review text.
• The source is a narrative review compiling values from cited studies; Table 6 intake estimates combine review-wide mean Al concentrations with Spanish AESAN consumption data.
• 2026-05-18 fresh-context audit (Codex subagent) returned REVISE-level concerns; applied clarification for the 312 ± 18 µg/g tea value, normalized matrices to common broad terms, and tightened the App implication. The Certification/Courses/App labels are retained because they are required by the source-page template.

Page history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page. 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.