Overview
Stančić and colleagues bought 28 vegetable samples at Varaždin city market in autumn 2013 and measured arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, mercury, manganese, nickel, lead and zinc by atomic absorption. Table 1 reports dry-weight means and ranges; fresh-weight results appear in figures and as means in the Discussion. Five samples exceeded the EU lead limit and one red potato exceeded the cadmium limit.
Key numbers
- Lettuce, dry weight: cadmium 1.16 ± 0.24 mg/kg, lead 1.22 ± 0.67 mg/kg (Table 1, p. 343).
- Cabbage, dry weight: lead 0.83 ± 0.49 mg/kg, cadmium 0.20 ± 0.07 mg/kg (Table 1, p. 343).
- Red potato, one sample: cadmium 0.12 and lead 0.26 mg/kg fresh weight (Results, p. 343).
- Common bean (sold dried), fresh-weight mean lead 0.58 mg/kg (Discussion, p. 346).
Methods (brief)
Vegetables were washed, air-dried and ground; 1 g was digested with nitric and perchloric acids. Graphite-furnace AAS for arsenic, cadmium, chromium, nickel and lead, flame AAS for copper, manganese and zinc, hydride generation for mercury. Each sample was measured once; no reference material or recovery is reported. Potatoes were not peeled.
Evidence Fitness
Small sample (about four per vegetable, number not stated per type) from one market, single measurements and no CRM. Chromium was below detection in every sample and arsenic in 23 of 28. Lettuce, cabbage and beans are direct for non-root vegetables. Raw unpeeled potato is a proxy for cream-of-potato-soup, so that page is not linked.