Overview
Reinholds and colleagues tested 46 mould-ripened blue cheeses from Riga stores for mycotoxins, biogenic amines and 13 elements by ICP-MS, with 44 analysed for metals. Lead was detected in just over half the cheeses at low levels, cadmium in one, and arsenic, nickel, cobalt and copper in none. Exposure from blue cheese gave hazard indices of 0.14 or less across European consumption surveys.
Key numbers
- Lead: detected in “25/44”, mean 0.013, range “0.007-0.024” mg/kg wet weight (Table 5); three samples were near 0.02 mg/kg.
- Cadmium: “1/44” at 0.002 mg/kg, the detection limit (Table 5; p. 13).
- Arsenic, cobalt, nickel and copper below detection in all samples (section 3.4).
- Tin: 13 of 44, mean 2.59 mg/kg, range 0.024 to 32.5 mg/kg (Table 5); the text reports 39.5 mg/kg in one sample.
Methods (brief)
Triplicate 0.5 g portions were microwave-digested in nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide and analysed by ICP-MS against eight-point calibrations. Detection limits were three times the SD of blanks, with recoveries below 120% and RSDs below 20% reported in a supplement that was not available.
Evidence Fitness
Good analytical method and a multi-origin retail sample, but Table 5 summarizes only positive samples, per-element detection limits sit in an unavailable supplement, and the tin text and table disagree. The manifest flagged the metals as unverified from the abstract; the full text confirms lead and cadmium were measured. Blue cheese is a proxy for the macaroni and cheese page, not that dish.