Overview
Mussels from the Spanish market were analyzed by ICP-MS for 43 elements, grouped by conservation mode, with intake and risk estimates for Spanish adults and children. Fresh and frozen mussels had more arsenic, mercury and nickel than canned mussels, while canned mussels had three to four times more tin. Four frozen Chilean samples exceeded the EU cadmium limit.
Key numbers
- Cadmium median 232.1 ng/g canned, 353.3 frozen, 275.3 fresh; total arsenic median 1641.9, 3377.3, 3785.0 ng/g (Table 3, p. 7).
- Lead median 184.5 ng/g canned, 111.5 frozen, 255.9 fresh; mercury median 11.2, 16.2, 22.5 ng/g (Table 3).
- Tin mean 26.2 ng/g in canned versus 9.6 frozen and 11.7 fresh (Table 3).
Methods (brief)
Canned contents pooled; fresh and frozen mussels steamed 10 min in their own juice. Microwave nitric acid digestion and ICP-MS (Agilent 7900) with internal standards; validation recoveries 87 to 118%. Values below the LOQ but above the LOD were replaced by random values between the limits. Results in ng/g fresh weight.
Evidence Fitness
A broad market sample with mean, SD, median and quartiles. Sample counts conflict between the abstract (208), Table 1 and the results tables (188), and origin, brand and organic comparisons are only in unavailable supplementary tables. Steamed mussels and canned mussels are proxies for clam-chowder; that thin page is not linked.
Related evidence
Update history
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