OCCURRENCE OF LEAD AND CADMIUM IN SLAUGHTERED CHICKEN LIVER IN RIO DE JANEIRO (BRAZIL)

Abstract

The main aim of this work was to evaluate the rate of heavy metals contamination in chicken marketed in Rio de Janeiro, by determining its lead and cadmiun contents. Simultaneous ly i t was checked if a less precise and cheapper atomic absorption spectrophotometer could be used in routine analysis of meat products and if dry ashing technique along with ashing aid in the sample destruction for the atomic absorption analysis of these two metals could be used, in order to avoid employing importated acids of high purity which are very expensive and difficult to get. The results showed that the chicken that was analysed by this method had no detectable traces of lead and cadmiun, there were no traces above the background noise of 0,4 ppm for Pb and 0,04 ppm for Cd. (The Brazilian law allows up to 8 and 1 ppm of Pb and Cd, respectively). We have concluded that the dry ashing technique with ashing aid is applicable in lead analysis of meat products however not so reliable for cadmiun analysis. A review of the literature about toxicological problems caused by these two metals was also made.