Overview
Marín and colleagues report occurrence data from the 2010-2011 Valencia total diet study: 81 foods in 12 groups, each built from 100 retail samples pooled into ten composites. Lead, cadmium, total and inorganic arsenic, copper, chromium and tin were measured in all foods, and total mercury and methylmercury in fish and seafood. Results are means, minimums and maximums in mg/kg fresh mass. The same survey fed an earlier dietary exposure paper (Marín et al. 2016, Food Additives and Contaminants Part A); this paper gives the fuller per-food tables.
Key numbers
- Sauces and mayonnaise (one composite food): lead 0,0143 mg/kg (range 0,0079-0,0404), cadmium 0,0085, tin 6,1207 mg/kg with maximum 25,6219 (Table 2b, p. 660-661).
- Tomatoes: lead below the limit of quantification in all composites; cadmium 0,0055 mg/kg; inorganic arsenic 0,0001 mg/kg (Table 2b).
- Salt: lead 0,3310 mg/kg, the highest food mean for lead (Table 2b).
- Swordfish: total mercury 1,4448 mg/kg (maximum 2,2874), methylmercury 0,8186 mg/kg (Table 2c, p. 663).
- Rice: total arsenic 0,1468 mg/kg, inorganic arsenic 0,0740 mg/kg (Table 2a, p. 658).
Methods (brief)
Edible parts were homogenized, lyophilized and microwave-digested with nitric acid. Lead, cadmium, total arsenic, copper, chromium and tin were measured by ICP-MS, inorganic arsenic by FI-HG-AAS after solvent extraction, total mercury by CV-AFS and methylmercury by HPLC-CV-AFS. Labs were ISO/IEC 17025 accredited, with blanks, duplicates, fortified samples and several certified reference materials. Results below the LOQ were set to LOQ/2 in means.
Evidence Fitness
A large, well-designed total diet study with good analytical QA. Ten composites per food, each of ten samples, so per-food ranges reflect composites rather than single items. LOQ values sit in an online supplement that was not available, and the table header (fresh mass) conflicts with one methods sentence about dry-mass correction. A few cells are internally inconsistent (means above maximums for tin in sausages and pasta, inorganic arsenic in cured ham and cured sausage, total arsenic in milk; minimum above maximum for inorganic arsenic in peppers); these are flagged in the extraction. The “sauces and mayonnaise” composite is a proxy for pasta-sauce only: it is not identified as pasta or tomato sauce, so the pasta-sauce page is not linked. Foods were analyzed as purchased, not cooked.