Heavy Metals in Food and How to Test for Them

High levels of toxic heavy metals—including cadmium, mercury, lead, copper, tungsten, and arsenic—can be
present in food and other consumer products, even those that are natural and organic. As shown in Table 1,
these numbers can be alarmingly high.1

Concentrations of heavy metals found in consumer products1

Substance Amount Product

Arsenic >6 ppm Spirulina products

Cadmium >2000 ppb Rice proteins

Copper >1200 ppm Children’s multivitamins

Lead >500 ppb Rice proteins

Lead >5 ppm Gingko herb products

Lead >200 ppb Mascara products

Lead >400 ppb Cacao powders

Mercury >500 ppb Dried cat treats

Mercury >100 ppb Dog treats

Tungsten >10 ppm Rice protein products

These and other findings make it more critical than ever for industry to conduct thorough investigations
into heavy metals in potable water and food products. Four commonly encountered heavy metals and their
possible health effects are listed below.

Arsenic
Skin, bladder, and lung cancer; disorders of the vascular and nervous systems; cardiovascular disease;
memory impairment; reproductive damage

Cadmium
Kidney toxicity, hypertension, lung damage, skeletal damage, birth defects

Lead
Children: short-term, low-level exposure impacts neurobehavioral development; can accumulate in fetus
after passing through the placenta. Adults: can cause anemia and damage to brain, kidney, reproductive,
immune, gastrointestinal, and nervous systems

Mercury
Central nervous system, immune system, respiratory system, renal system, and kidney damage; impedes
brain development in growing fetus
Determination of heavy metals in food
Metal levels in the food supply are actively monitored by the FDA. The agency has formed a Toxic Elements
Working Group, with a goal toward minimizing exposure to harmful elements in consumer products like
cosmetics, food, and dietary supplements.

A number of analytical procedures are used to test for heavy metals in food. These include:

• Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)—measures down to parts per quadrillion

(ppq); can estimate elements from lithium to uranium, i.e., elements with an atomic mass of 7–250

• Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES)—commonly used to test for

the presence of arsenic in fish; measures between 1 and 60 elements per minute

• Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS)—measures down to parts per billion (ppb)

◦ Vapor generation AAS—detects minute levels of mercury, including methylmercury in fish
◦ Flameless AAS—increases sensitivity of flame AAS up to 200×

• Colorimetric method—suitable for detection of metal ions

Reference
1. http://www.naturalsciencejournal.org/ICP-MS-Analysis-100-Municipal-Water-Samples.html

Additional resources
1. http://lowheavymetalsverified.org/
2. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/chemical-contaminants-heavy-metals-food-pragash-ramadoss/
3. https://foodsafetyhelpline.com/2015/10/metal-contaminants-in-food-and-how-they-can-be-analysed/
4. https://www.fda.gov/food/foodborneillnesscontaminants/metals/default.htm
5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5579749/