Overview
A University of Milan team analyzed 258 pooled samples of salted and canned anchovies, collected over ten months in 2020, for eight elements by ICP-OES and for perfluoroalkyl substances by high-resolution mass spectrometry. Only pooled mean, median and maximum values across all origins and both product types are printed. Estimated intakes for Italian consumers were a small fraction of the EFSA health-based guidance values.
Key numbers
- Mercury: mean 290.0, median 280.0, maximum 650.0 ng/g; 71% of pools positive (Table 5).
- Cadmium: mean 60.00, maximum 90.00 ng/g; lead: mean 170.0, maximum 750.0 ng/g (Table 5).
- Arsenic (column headed “inorganic arsenic (iAs)”): mean 230.0, maximum 510.0 ng/g; tin mean 200.0, aluminum mean 1880 ng/g (Table 5).
- Hazard indexes at the highest concentrations were below 0.02 (Table 9).
Methods (brief)
Microwave digestion with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide, ICP-OES with yttrium internal standard, triplicate determinations. Recovery from mussel tissue reference material ERM-CE278k was 91 to 105% for most elements and 125% for mercury; results were corrected for recovery. LODs (Table 4) range from 0.40 to 3.6 ng/g.
Evidence Fitness
Large sample of commercial preserved anchovies on an as-sold basis, so this is direct evidence for tinned fish. Limits: salted and canned products and the three origins are not reported separately; the origin counts sum to 256, not 258; the arsenic column is labeled inorganic although the method measures total arsenic (recorded as total arsenic with a flag); mercury recovery was high.
Related evidence
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