Overview
Zhang and colleagues measured lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic by ICP-MS in 70 vegetables and 8 fruits bought in Shandong markets and retail stores in mid-2019, then estimated adult dietary exposure and hazard quotients from vegetables. Results are reported as means and ranges by vegetable class (stem, leafy, fruit vegetables) and for fruit as one group, with a few named individual high values in the text. All levels were below the cited Chinese limits except mercury in one Indian lettuce sample.
Key numbers
- Fruit (n = 8): lead mean 29.33 µg/kg, range <LOQ to 64.00 µg/kg; cadmium and arsenic below LOQ; mercury mean 9.88 µg/kg, range <LOQ to 12.20 µg/kg (Table 2).
- Leafy vegetables (n = 17): lead mean 40.50 µg/kg, arsenic mean 40 µg/kg with maximum 138.00 µg/kg (Table 2).
- Stem vegetables (n = 26): cadmium mean 18.34 µg/kg, range <LOQ to 49.94 µg/kg; the potato had the highest cadmium (Table 2; Section 3.2).
- Named fruit values in the text: peach lead 64.00 µg/kg, apple lead 17.00 µg/kg, banana lead 7.00 µg/kg; apple mercury 12.20 µg/kg (Section 3.2).
Methods (brief)
Homogenized edible portions (about 0.5 g) were digested with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide in high-pressure tanks and analyzed on a Thermo iCAP Q ICP-MS with internal standards. LOQs were 5 (lead), 0.3 (cadmium), 3 (mercury) and 10 µg/kg (arsenic). Spike recoveries were 93.3 to 99.8 percent; no certified reference material is reported. The basis (fresh or dry weight) is not stated.
Evidence Fitness
A small market survey: only 8 fruit samples spread over seven fruit types, and most per-food values are not printed. Group means appear to be averages of detected samples only, so they overstate the typical level for groups with many non-detects. Arsenic is total arsenic. The fruit group is a generic fruit survey and is only a proxy for fruit-mixed, cantaloupe, fruit-snack-candy and green-bell-pepper, none of which it measures.