Overview
Jamil and colleagues measured cadmium, chromium, lead and copper by flame atomic absorption spectrometry in seven edible organs, including muscle, of chicken, goat and cow bought in five Lahore markets in mid-2013. Table 1 gives a mean and standard deviation per organ and species. Chromium exceeded the cited limit in every organ, and goat liver and kidney had the highest cadmium.
Key numbers
- Chicken flesh (muscle): cadmium “0.211 ± 0.149”, chromium “1.912 ± 0.458”, lead “0.962 ± 0.417”, copper “0.409 ± 0.201” µg/g (Table 1).
- Goat kidney cadmium “2.165 ± 0.070” µg/g and goat liver lead “1.411 ± 0.139” µg/g, the highest of their metals (Table 1).
- Beef flesh lead “1.122 ± 0.250” µg/g (Table 1).
Methods (brief)
One-gram subsamples were oven-dried at 105 °C for one hour, digested with nitric and perchloric acids on a hot plate and read by air-acetylene flame AAS against six calibration standards. No detection limits, blanks, certified reference material or recoveries are reported, and the wet or dry basis is not stated.
Evidence Fitness
Single-season market sampling with unclear sample counts (the methods say 30 samples in total, the table header says 30 per organ). Table 1 is labelled µg/g while the abstract and text give the same numbers as mg/g; the table unit is used. Chromium is described as hexavalent although flame AAS measures total chromium, and “gizzard” is listed for goat and cow. Lead and chromium in chicken muscle near 1 µg/g are high for flame AAS without quality control, so the data should be weighted cautiously. Chicken muscle is direct evidence for chicken and only a proxy for chicken-broth, which is not linked.