Overview
Jaradat and Tarawneh bought 175 packets of potato and corn chips in Jordan in summer 2006 and measured iron, copper, manganese, lead, zinc and cadmium by flame AAS, then estimated children’s daily intake. Product means are given per product, per flavor and per country of manufacture. Reported lead levels were high, averaging 6.57 mg/kg in potato chips and 6.79 mg/kg in corn chips.
Key numbers
- Potato chips, average of 11 products: lead 6.57 ± 3.65 mg/kg, cadmium 0.25 ± 0.09 mg/kg (Table 2, p. 72).
- Corn chips, average of 14 products: lead 6.79 ± 5.04 mg/kg, cadmium 0.21 ± 0.10 mg/kg (Table 3, p. 73).
- Highest potato chip product mean lead 15.45 ± 1.6 mg/kg; lead not detected in six potato chip products (Table 2, p. 72).
Methods (brief)
Chips were mashed, dried at 105 °C for 1 h and wet-digested with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide at 130 °C; flame AAS. LODs were 0.133 ppm for lead and 0.007 ppm for cadmium. NIST SRM 1573 tomato leaves gave 89 to 99% recovery for the other metals, but no lead recovery was reported.
Evidence Fitness
Seven or three replicates per product and a large sample set, but lead results of 5 to 17 mg/kg are far above usual snack levels and lack a lead reference check, so lead should be read cautiously. Brands are replaced by letters in the extraction. Potato chips are a processed potato proxy for cream-of-potato-soup, so that page is not linked.