Heavy metal residues in beef carcasses in Beni-Suef abattoir, Egypt

Overview

Khalafalla and colleagues measured lead, cadmium, total arsenic, total mercury, nickel, and total chromium in cattle muscle, liver, and kidney samples from the Beni-Suef abattoir in Egypt. The study reports µg/kg fresh weight tissue concentrations for 100 samples per tissue. Offal and muscle are kept separate because kidney carried the highest mean concentrations for most analytes.

Key numbers

• Sample frame: 300 samples total from cattle slaughtered at Beni-Suef abattoir, comprising 100 muscle, 100 liver, and 100 kidney samples; cattle were less than three years old (18-30 months).
• Table II overall means (µg/kg fresh weight, mean ± SE): muscle Pb 8.77 ± 0.76, Cd 1.40 ± 0.22, tAs 5.06 ± 0.46, tHg 3.91 ± 1.07, Ni 21.17 ± 1.78, Cr 11.20 ± 0.76.
• Table II overall means (µg/kg fresh weight, mean ± SE): liver Pb 42.70 ± 4.39, Cd 14.16 ± 0.72, tAs 4.64 ± 0.40, tHg 5.81 ± 0.68, Ni 14.59 ± 1.16, Cr 21.85 ± 2.24.
• Table II overall means (µg/kg fresh weight, mean ± SE): kidney Pb 109.42 ± 10.68, Cd 62.56 ± 4.28, tAs 14.92 ± 1.70, tHg 10.14 ± 0.58, Ni 34.95 ± 2.96, Cr 25.49 ± 2.51.
• Table I lead (µg/kg fresh weight): muscle n=100, <LOD=7, minimum ND, maximum 35.60, mean 8.77, SE 0.76; liver n=100, <LOD=2, minimum ND, maximum 196.65, mean 42.70, SE 4.39; kidney n=100, <LOD=1, minimum ND, maximum 464.80, mean 109.42, SE 10.68.
• Table III cadmium (µg/kg fresh weight): muscle n=100, <LOD=9, minimum ND, maximum 17.78, mean 1.40, SE 0.22; liver n=100, <LOD=0, minimum 4.46, maximum 41.85, mean 14.16, SE 0.72; kidney n=100, <LOD=0, minimum 16.92, maximum 280.75, mean 62.56, SE 4.28.
• Table IV total arsenic (µg/kg fresh weight): muscle n=100, <LOD=0, minimum 1.85, maximum 26.77, mean 5.06, SE 0.46; liver n=100, <LOD=0, minimum 1.20, maximum 26.36, mean 4.64, SE 0.40; kidney n=100, <LOD=3, minimum ND, maximum 113.00, mean 14.92, SE 1.70.
• Table V total mercury (µg/kg fresh weight): muscle n=100, <LOD=1, minimum ND, maximum 80.80, mean 3.91, SE 1.07; liver n=100, <LOD=0, minimum 0.67, maximum 45.72, mean 5.81, SE 0.68; kidney n=100, <LOD=0, minimum 2.51, maximum 26.29, mean 10.14, SE 0.58.
• Table VI nickel (µg/kg fresh weight): muscle n=100, <LOD=0, minimum 1.35, maximum 90.27, mean 21.17, SE 1.78; liver n=100, <LOD=2, minimum ND, maximum 42.46, mean 14.59, SE 1.16; kidney n=100, <LOD=4, minimum ND, maximum 143.85, mean 34.95, SE 2.96.
• Table VII total chromium (µg/kg fresh weight): muscle n=100, <LOD=0, minimum 1.05, maximum 47.95, mean 11.20, SE 0.76; liver n=100, <LOD=0, minimum 1.96, maximum 112.85, mean 21.85, SE 2.24; kidney n=100, <LOD=0, minimum 2.60, maximum 143.62, mean 25.49, SE 2.51.

Methods (brief)

The authors randomly selected cattle from the Beni-Suef abattoir slaughter line, packed muscle, liver, and kidney samples separately in plastic bags, identified them, and stored them at -18°C until analysis at the Max Rubner Institute in Kulmbach, Germany. Visible fat was removed and samples were homogenized for about 20 sec using a laboratory mixer with a pure-titanium blade to avoid chromium and nickel contamination from stainless steel. Samples were wet-digested with HNO3 65% in closed microwave vessels, made up to 25 ml with double-deionized water, and analyzed by ICP-MS on an Agilent 7500 C with Octopole Reaction System; Cr was measured with collision-cell conditions because of Cr52 interference.

Implications

Certification (HMTc): This is direct occurrence evidence for Egyptian beef muscle and organ meats on a fresh-weight basis. It should route to beef-product context, with kidney/liver values kept separate from muscle because offal concentrations are materially higher for Pb, Cd, tAs, tHg, Ni, and Cr.

Courses: The paper is a useful example of preserving species labels: arsenic is total arsenic, mercury is total mercury, and chromium is total chromium. The source does not measure inorganic arsenic, methylmercury, or Cr(VI).

App: The source can support beef and organ-meat context for Egypt, including tissue-specific min/max and mean ± SE values for six metals.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• Lead
• Cadmium
• Arsenic, Total
• Mercury, Total
• Nickel
• Chromium
• Beef
• Meat and poultry
• Organ Meats (Kidney and Liver)
• Beef

Verification notes

• PDF text was extracted with pdftotext -layout to /tmp/mfk_june8_579.txt; the title block, abstract, Sample collection, Homogenisation, wet digestion, analytical procedures, Tables I-VII, and discussion passages around each table were checked against this page.
• No DOI was printed in the extracted text or PDF metadata. Title/author text, raw handle MFK_heavy-metal-residues-in-beef-carcasses-in-beni, candidate cite-key khalafalla2011-beef-carcasses-metals-egypt, and raw SHA were searched before creation; no existing source page was found.
• Units and basis are copied exactly as µg/kg fresh weight; no conversion to mg/kg was performed.
• Speciation: arsenic is reported as total arsenic (tAs), mercury as total mercury (tHg), and chromium as total chromium (Cr). This page does not relabel these as iAs, MeHg, or Cr(VI).
• Brand firewall: the source reports abattoir-level cattle tissue samples and does not name brands or sellers. No brand-linked contamination values are reported here.
• Frontmatter slugs were checked against docs/gpt-collaboration/taxonomy-snapshot.md. The taxonomy lacks exact beef kidney/liver/muscle ingredient/product slugs, so tissue forms remain matrix descriptors and broad routing uses beef, meat, organ-meats, and beef-product.

Update history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and 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.