Overview
Ibrahim and colleagues measured lead, cadmium, chromium and nickel by AAS, and potassium bromate by UV-visible spectrophotometry, in 20 bread samples from Kaduna bakeries. Only overall means are reported. Lead and nickel exceeded the limits the authors cite.
Key numbers
- Bread lead: mean 0.174 mg/kg, range 0.150 to 0.200 mg/kg (Results).
- Bread cadmium 0.035, chromium 0.067 and nickel 0.146 mg/kg as means (Results table).
Methods (brief)
Metals were measured by AAS; the digestion method, detection limits and reference-material results are not described, although the authors say reference materials were used and analyses were run in triplicate.
Evidence Fitness
Very thin reporting: no dispersion, no per-bakery or per-area values, and the published text keeps template placeholders (for example ‘SPSS (Version XX)’ and an empty risk-assessment section), so peer review cannot be confirmed and the record is tier B. Twenty samples from one city. For bagels, crackers, pretzels, cinnamon rolls, cornbread, flour tortillas and toaster pastries this is a bread proxy only; none of those foods was measured.