Overview
Rotimi and colleagues bought carrot, cucumber, pineapple, watermelon and orange in triplicate from five Lagos markets and measured lead, chromium, cadmium, copper, zinc and nickel by atomic absorption, alongside proximate composition. Lead ranged from 0.040 to 0.240 mg/kg across fruit and market combinations, and cadmium from 0.003 to 0.130 mg/kg. The authors judge the levels to be within tolerable limits.
Key numbers
- Lead, mean by produce: carrot 0.178, cucumber 0.169, orange 0.149, watermelon 0.131, pineapple 0.100 mg/kg (Table 2).
- Cadmium, watermelon: 0.055 mg/kg overall, 0.030 to 0.070 by market (Tables 2 and 3).
- Market averages for lead: 0.085 (Oyingbo) to 0.186 mg/kg (Iyana-Ipaja) (Table 4).
Methods (brief)
Samples were oven dried at 35 °C, ground and digested with hydrochloric, nitric and sulfuric acids, then read by AAS. A reagent blank and replicate digestions were run; no reference material, recovery or detection limit is reported, and the table basis is not labelled (dried material).
Evidence Fitness
A small market survey (three units per fruit per market) with limited QA. Values look like dry-weight results, so they are not directly comparable with fresh-weight limits. Watermelon is measured directly and supports the non-apple-fruit page; for cantaloupe it is only a related melon proxy and that page is not linked.