Overview
Shivakumar and colleagues measured arsenic, chromium, copper, lead, cadmium and mercury by ICP-MS in seven vegetables and two fruits bought in four taluk markets of Bangalore Rural district. Each food has one value per market (Tables 1, 4, 7 and 10), on oven-dried material, and the paper adds daily-intake and hazard-quotient tables. No sweet or bell pepper was analysed.
Key numbers
- Mango, lead: 29.201 (Nelamangala, Table 1), 31.202 (Devanahalli, Table 4), 42.202 (Doddaballapura, Table 7) and 25.501 (Hosakote, Table 10); table unit not printed, text compares with mg/kg limits.
- Tomato, lead: 1.780 to 2.201 across the four markets (Tables 1, 4, 7, 10).
- Spinach, cadmium: 0.020 (Nelamangala) to 3.152 (Devanahalli) (Tables 1 and 4).
- Values below detection are printed “BDL” with no stated limit.
Methods (brief)
Samples were rinsed, air-dried, oven-dried at 100 C and ground, then digested and analysed by ICP-MS following the FSSAI 2016 manual. Calibration used standard solutions; no certified reference material or recovery is reported.
Evidence Fitness
One composite value per food per market, no sample counts, no detection limits and no collection dates. The table unit is not printed and the text statements on exceedances do not always match the tables. Lead in mango of 25 to 42 (presumably mg/kg dry weight) is unusually high for fruit. The paper was pulled for green bell pepper but measures no pepper, so it gives no data for that page.