Overview
Soares and Moraes measured lead and cadmium by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry in 63 Brazilian beers from breweries in six states. Table 2 lists every sample (duplicate means, corrected for recovery) and Table 4 compares rural and industrial breweries, light and dark beers, and cans and bottles. All values were below the Brazilian limit of 0.5 mg/L for alcoholic beverages.
Key numbers
- All beers: lead not detected to 290 µg/L, mean 38 µg/L; cadmium not detected to 14.3 µg/L, mean 1.6 µg/L (Section 3, p. 288).
- Dark beers (n=17): lead 50±58 µg/L, cadmium 3.1±3.6 µg/L; light beers (n=46): lead 33±56 µg/L, cadmium 1.0±2.3 µg/L (Table 4).
- Aluminum cans (n=21) lead 47±65 µg/L versus glass bottles (n=42) 32±52 µg/L, not significant (Table 4).
Methods (brief)
Beers were degassed and diluted with Triton X-100 in dilute nitric acid, then read by Zeeman graphite furnace AAS with an ammonium phosphate modifier. Recovery was 91% for lead and 76% for cadmium, and results were corrected for recovery. Two NIST leaf reference materials were analysed. The detection limit is not stated.
Evidence Fitness
A reasonably sized, sample-level market survey with reference-material checks, but old (published 2003, collection dates not reported) and without a stated detection limit. The text gives the sample count as both 63 and 62, and the English summary prints a lead mean of 37 µg/L against 38 µg/L in the text. Beer is a proxy for whiskey: it is a fermented, undistilled beverage, so these values do not describe distilled spirits and the whiskey page is not linked. Results are per litre and are not comparable with mg/kg food values.