Unguryanu et al. 2023 - Heavy metals in wild mushrooms and berries from Arkhangelsk

Unguryanu et al. analysed official laboratory protocols for wild mushrooms and berries collected in the Arkhangelsk region during 2015-2021. The dataset covers 201 mushroom samples and 175 berry samples, with wet-weight concentrations for mercury, arsenic, lead, and cadmium plus radionuclide results. The source is useful for geographic-variance context in wild mushrooms and northern wild berries; it should not be pooled with cultivated mushroom or commercial fresh-fruit market samples without preserving the wild-foraged Russian scope.

Key numbers

Sample frame: 201 wild mushroom samples and 175 wild berry samples from forests near Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk and from Krasnoborsky, Pinezhsky, Primorsky, Onezhsky, and Ustyansky districts, 2015-2021.

Exceedance screen: the authors report no maximum-permissible-level exceedance for heavy metals in 94% of mushroom samples and 86% of berry samples. They state that three cep samples and one chanterelle sample exceeded the cadmium maximum permissible level, while 12 berry samples exceeded hygienic standards for arsenic and cadmium.

All wild mushrooms, Table 1, wet weight:

• tHg: median 0.013 mg/kg, 95% CI 0.011-0.022, P90 0.044, range amplitude 0.046.
• tAs: median 0.034 mg/kg, 95% CI 0.027-0.082, P90 0.360, range amplitude 0.418.
• Pb: median 0.083 mg/kg, 95% CI 0.039-0.134, P90 0.390, range amplitude 0.415.
• Cd: median 0.040 mg/kg, 95% CI 0.030-0.062, P90 0.083, range amplitude 0.919.

All wild berries, Table 1, wet weight:

• tHg: median 0.006 mg/kg, 95% CI 0.004-0.011, P90 0.012, range amplitude 0.008.
• tAs: median 0.031 mg/kg, 95% CI 0.021-0.054, P90 0.220, range amplitude 0.187.
• Pb: median 0.065 mg/kg, 95% CI 0.036-0.099, P90 0.150, range amplitude 0.238.
• Cd: median 0.022 mg/kg, 95% CI 0.015-0.033, P90 0.042, range amplitude 0.300.

Berry growth-form breakdown, Table 2, wet weight:

• Tall shrubs: tHg median 0.005 mg/kg and P90 0.012; tAs median 0.067 and P90 0.24; Pb median 0.088 and P90 0.15; Cd median 0.030 and P90 0.041.
• Undersized shrubs: tHg median 0.005 mg/kg and P90 0.007; tAs median 0.033 and P90 0.22; Pb median 0.038 and P90 0.15; Cd median 0.014 and P90 0.036.
• Herbaceous plants: tHg median 0.007 mg/kg and P90 0.008; tAs median 0.030 and P90 0.057; Pb median 0.079 and P90 0.25; Cd median 0.030 and P90 0.178.

Tubular-vs-plate mushroom comparison: at the median and P90 levels, tubular mushrooms had higher tHg (0.036 and 0.047 mg/kg), tAs (0.080 and 0.36 mg/kg), and Cd (0.04 and 0.089 mg/kg) than plate mushrooms; the authors report statistical significance only for tHg (p=0.003). Plate mushrooms had higher Pb at the median and P90 (0.089 and 0.41 mg/kg).

Methods (brief)

The paper is a secondary analysis of 2015-2021 official laboratory protocols from the Agrochemical Service Station “Arkhangelskaya” and the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Arkhangelsk Region and Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The authors recorded product name, sampling date and location, Cd, Hg, Pb, and As concentrations in mg/kg raw weight, and Cs-137 and Sr-90 in Bq/kg raw weight. Concentration distributions were non-normal, so the authors reported medians, 95% confidence intervals for medians, P90 values, and range amplitudes; group comparisons used Mann-Whitney U or Kruskal-Wallis tests.

Implications

Certification: This is A-tier regional occurrence evidence for wild-foraged mushrooms and berries in northern Russia. It supports geographic-variance context and benchmark sensitivity review for wild mushrooms, but it is not a US-market pool source and should not be silently pooled with cultivated mushrooms or ordinary commercial fresh fruit.

Courses: The source is a clear example of why wild-foraged foods need their own matrix and geography tags: mushrooms and berries from the same region show different metal profiles, and mushroom morphology shifts mercury accumulation.

App: Wild mushroom warnings can use the high mushroom P90 values for Pb, tAs, and Cd as regional context, while berry outputs should preserve the tall-shrub, undersized-shrub, and herbaceous-plant grouping.

Microbiome: Not applicable.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• wild-mushrooms
• mushrooms
• fruits
• fresh-fruit
• mercury
• arsenic
• lead
• cadmium

Verification notes

• Evidence Fitness: routeable for wild mushroom and wild berry occurrence context on a wet-weight basis; context-only for cultivated mushrooms, commercial fresh-fruit products, and US-market benchmark pools unless governance later approves cross-market sensitivity use.
• Speciation: the paper reports mercury and arsenic without species separation, so this page uses tHg and tAs. It does not support methylmercury or inorganic arsenic values.
• Basis: the source records concentrations in mg/kg raw weight. No dry-weight conversion was applied.
• Product routing: no exact product page exists for fresh or wild mushrooms; this page routes mushrooms through ingredient and matrix fields and routes berries to the existing fresh-fruit product page.

Page history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.