Overview
This data report publishes cadmium measurements made on foods and beverages bought in three US cities in 1979 and 1980, combined with USDA Total Diet Study consumption data to estimate daily intake. Only food-group geometric means and a detailed carrot comparison are printed; Table 1 just lists the foods collected. The estimated intake was about 15 µg per person per day, mainly from vegetables, wheat and potatoes.
Key numbers
- Food-group geometric means: other cereals 40, wheat 29, potato 24, vegetables 20, milk 0.30 ng/g (Table 2).
- Carrots, dry weight: 20.8 ± 18.1 ng/g (Ontario) to 351.3 ± 69.3 ng/g (Boston, Massachusetts); overall geometric mean 120 ng/g (Table 3 and text).
- Estimated intake 14,655 ng/day per capita in 1980 (Table 2).
Methods (brief)
Samples were oven-dried, ashed with nitric acid and analysed by graphite furnace AAS; NBS rice flour, spinach and bovine liver reference materials and spike recoveries (105 to 108%) were used. Non-detects were set to one-third of the detection limit for averaging.
Evidence Fitness
Historical data (over 40 years old) published in 2024, useful as a baseline. Food-group means pool many items and their wet or dry basis is not stated. The food list names several soups, but no per-soup values are printed, so this paper is not soup evidence and the soup pages (broccoli-cheese-soup, chicken-noodle-soup, cream-of-mushroom-soup, cream-of-potato-soup, vegetable-beef-soup) are not linked.