Mesinger and Ocieczek 2021 - Heavy metals in red deer meat in Poland
Mesinger and Ocieczek measured arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury in meat samples from red deer does and assessed game-meat intake risk in Poland. The study is routeable for game-meat occurrence because Table 1 reports measured concentrations in meat samples. It found arsenic and mercury below detection in the sampled red deer meat, with lead and cadmium reported in mg/kg meat.
Key numbers
- Sample frame: 12 red deer doe meat samples.
- Method range stated in the PDF: arsenic 0.010-5.0 mg/kg, cadmium 0.002-1.00 mg/kg, lead 0.010-5.0 mg/kg, and mercury 0.001-5.0 mg/kg.
- Table 1 reports arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury contents in red deer meat samples.
- The authors state that arsenic and mercury were not determined in any of the 12 samples because they were below the method detection limit.
- The discussion cites lead values around 0.1000 +/- 0.09 mg/kg in the tested red deer meat and notes comparison values from western Poland near 0.1200 +/- 0.10 mg/kg.
- The source cites Polish or EU limits of 0.10 mg/kg fresh product for lead and 0.050 mg/kg fresh product for cadmium for slaughter-animal meat comparison.
Methods (brief)
The study analyzed meat samples for toxic elements and used the results in a dietary risk assessment. The paper reports total arsenic and total mercury, with no speciation into inorganic arsenic or methylmercury.
Implications
Certification: Supports direct game-meat Pb and Cd occurrence context for red deer, while As and Hg are non-detect context only.
Courses: Useful for showing how game-meat risk assessments compare wild meat with slaughter-animal regulatory limits.
App: Can inform venison-specific game-meat context for Poland, with detection-limit caveats.
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Verification notes
The paper reports total As and total Hg only. Non-detects should be preserved as source-reported non-detects rather than converted into zeros.
Page history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page. 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.
| Commit | Date | Description |
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| 6eea0b9 | 2026-05-29 | ingest auto-fetched 2026-05-29 0000 batch 1: 9 source pages |