Analysis and exposure assessment of some heavy metals in foodstuffs from Ismailia city, Egypt

Overview

Loutfy and colleagues measured cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), Zn, and Cu in locally produced plant- and animal-origin foodstuffs purchased from markets around Ismailia city, Egypt. The authors analyzed pooled edible portions by graphite-furnace AAS after dry ashing and used the measured food concentrations with FAO food-consumption inputs to estimate adult dietary intake. Bread was the largest contributor to Cd and Pb intake because of high consumption, even though fish and seafood had higher Pb concentrations.

Key numbers

Table 2 reports Cd, Pb, and Cr in µg kg-1 wet w; Zn and Cu are reported in mg kg-1 wet w.

The PDF text layer renders some µ glyphs as m; visual checking of Table 1 and Table 2 confirmed the source’s unit split: Cd, Pb, and Cr are in µg kg-1, while Zn and Cu are in mg kg-1.

Methods (brief)

Samples were collected randomly in 2007 from local markets around Ismailia city, Egypt; all sampled foodstuffs were reported as locally produced. About 350 individual samples were combined into analyzed pools, with each pool made from 4-6 individual samples. Only edible portions were analyzed. Vegetable samples were washed with tap water and shelled when necessary, then foods were oven-dried at 60-70 deg C, homogenized, dry-ashed in a muffle oven up to 500 deg C, dissolved in 65% nitric acid, diluted, filtered, and analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry with graphite tube/furnace atomization (Perkin Elmer M2100) and deuterium background correction. All samples were analyzed in duplicate; blanks and calibration standards accompanied each batch.

Implications

This source contributes Egyptian local-market occurrence data across rice, bread, vegetables, fruits, fish/seafood, meat, poultry, and dairy. For HMTc routing, bread and fish/seafood are high-signal Pb categories in this source, seafood is the highest Cd category by concentration, and bread is the largest Cd/Pb dietary contributor because of consumption rate. The paper is broad-market evidence for Ismailia rather than a brand or species-specific survey, so downstream use should preserve the broad product categories and wet-weight basis.

Update history

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