Cattle tissues as a source of cadmium for consumers

Abstract

The aim of this study was to re-evaluate the analytical results and time trends of the content of cadmium in muscle, liver, and kidney samples of young bovine animals and cows slaughtered in the Czech Republic during the years 1993–2010, and to estimate the total dietary exposure for the entire population aged 4–90 years and specifically, for children at the age of four to six years. Analyses showed that the arithmetic means of cadmium concentration in cow kidney and liver are higher than in young bovine (P < 0.0001), but not in muscle (P = 0.227). The mean cadmium concentration in cow kidney (0.595 mg·kg-1) was twice as high as in young bovine kidney (0.285 mg·kg-1) for the entire studied period. The mean concentration of cadmium in cow liver (0.113 mg·kg-1) was higher compared to young bovine liver (0.078 mg·kg-1). The mean concentration of cadmium in cow muscle (0.008 mg·kg-1) was comparable with young bovine muscle (0.006 mg·kg-1). The evaluation of time trends showed increasing concentrations of cadmium for cow (increasing slaughtering age) and young bovine kidney and decreasing concentrations for cow and young bovine muscle, but no significant change for liver. The estimated Cd burden of the entire population is worthy of attention (10% were over the tolerable dose of 2.5 μg·kg-1 body weight and week). For more than 50% of four to six-year-old children the burden exceeded the tolerable weekly intake. The contribution of food belonging to the group of meat and meat products, including cattle tissues, to usual cadmium exposure is only 5%. Nevertheless, the food safety recommendation is not to consume cow kidney as food.