Overview
This Korea Food and Drug Administration monitoring study measured lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury in 927 samples of eight fruits (apple, pear, persimmon, mandarin, orange, banana, kiwi and mango) collected from wholesale markets nationwide. All levels were in the low microgram per kilogram range, far below the 0.1 mg/kg lead limit, and estimated weekly intakes were a tiny fraction of the PTWI. The paper is in Korean with an English abstract and tables.
Key numbers
- Lead, mandarin (n = 150): mean 14.9 µg/kg, range 0.2-67.3 (Table 6).
- Lead, apple (n = 150): mean 10.0 µg/kg, range 0.4-80.6 (Table 6).
- Cadmium, pear (n = 150): mean 2.0 µg/kg, range 0.3-9.8 (Table 6).
- All 927 samples: mean lead 8.12, cadmium 0.7, arsenic 1.4, mercury 0.3 µg/kg (Table 6).
Methods (brief)
Washed fruit was homogenized fresh (apple, pear and persimmon with peel; the others peeled), digested by microwave with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide, and analyzed by ICP-MS for lead, cadmium and total arsenic; mercury by direct mercury analyzer. LODs were 0.007 (lead), 0.0014 (cadmium), 0.02 (arsenic) and 0.03 (mercury) µg/kg. Rice flour and tomato paste reference materials gave recoveries of 83 to 111%.
Evidence Fitness
Large national sample with reference materials and low detection limits, so it is strong evidence for the eight fruits. Collection dates are not printed. No melon was analyzed, so for cantaloupe this is only a generic fruit proxy and that page is not linked.