Overview
Hossain and colleagues bought beef in 20 Dhaka markets in two phases, bulked five samples per market, and measured arsenic, chromium, lead and cadmium by flame and graphite-furnace AAS. All market means were in the low µg/kg range, well below the cited meat limits.
Key numbers
- Lead 11.08 to 69.63 μg/kg across phase-1 markets (results Table 1, p. 5).
- Lead 22.64 to 46.74 μg/kg and cadmium 4.07 to 19.32 μg/kg across phase-2 markets (results Table 2, p. 5).
- Arsenic 2.18 to 5.61 μg/kg across all 20 markets (results Tables 1-2).
Methods (brief)
Beef was dried, ground, microwave-digested with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide and analysed by flame and graphite-furnace AAS (Shimadzu AA-7000). Blanks ran with each batch. No detection limits or reference-material recoveries are reported. The results tables do not state the weight basis.
Evidence Fitness
One bulked sample per market (20 in total), no reported LOD or CRM, and a text-table mismatch for phase-2 lead. The basis is probably dry weight because samples were dried first. For vegetable-beef-soup this is a proxy: it measures raw market beef, not soup.