Abstract

Cadmium (Cd) concentrations were evaluated in conventionally and organically grown foods. The samples were prepared, submitted to acid extraction and analyzed by Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (GFAAS). The mean concentration of Cd found in organic lettuce samples was 0.0811 ± 0.0367 mg kg-1, while in conventional lettuce samples it was 0.1549 ± 0.0266 mg kg-1. Organic carrot samples had a mean concentration of Cd of 0.1064 ± 0.0553 mg kg-1, while samples of carrots cultivated by the conventional method had a mean concentration of 0.1174 ± 0.0780 mg kg-1. It was observed that conventionally cultivated foods in individual evaluations presented concentrations of 1.2 to 3.1 times higher of Cd when compared to organic vegetables. The Brazilian legislation regarding the detection of Cd is established by RDC nº 42. It can be inferred that the average concentrations found in this study are within the values established by the legislation. When considering Cd exposure through vegetable consumption by evaluating the estimated daily metal intake (EDI) and the target hazard quotients (THQ), the samples did not present a potential health risk.

Highlights

  • The growth of the world population has increased anthropic activities with the purpose of providing means for survival

  • Three samples of lettuce and carrots cultivated by conventional methods and three samples organically cultivated certified with the organic label of the Brazilian System of Organic Conformity Assessment - SisOrg (Brasil, 2014) were acquired in markets in the North Zone of the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from December 2019 to March 2020, totaling 12 samples, which were analyzed in triplicate

  • When comparing the mean concentrations obtained with the acceptable limits by RDC no 42 (Brasil, 2013), both the organic

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Summary

Introduction

The growth of the world population has increased anthropic activities with the purpose of providing means for survival. There is an increase in the consumption of vegetables that is related to the growing awareness of the nutritional value of plant foods, as they are an important source of carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and fiber (Hadayat et al, 2018). It should be noted that the food chain is an important route for human exposure to toxic metals, as these have a great capacity for bioaccumulation in plants and a long half-life of 10 to 35 years (World Health Organization, 2020; Gupta et al, 2019; Correia et al, 2018; Paltseva et al, 2018) Studies have pointed out the risks of foods contaminated by trace-level toxic metals (Gupta et al, 2021; Kasozi, et al, 2021; Reboredo et al, 2019; Thompson & Darwish, 2019; González et al, 2019), with several studies carried out in Asia (Ahmed et al, 2019; Sawut et al, 2018; Hu et al, 2017; Hu et al, 2013), in North and South America (Araújo et al, 2019; Dala-Paula et al, 2018; Hadayat et al, 2018; Correia et al, 2018; França et al, 2017; Corguinha et al, 2015), in Africa (Edogbo et al, 2020; Hattab et al, 2019; Ametepey et al, 2018) and in Europe (Defarge et al, 2018; Hurtado-Barroso et al, 2019).

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