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Food Additives & Contaminants: Part B: Surveillance

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Determination of lead and cadmium content in

sausages from Iran
a a b a a
A. Abedi , R. Ferdousi , S. Eskandari , F. Seyyedahmadian & R. Khaksar
a
Department of Food Science and Technology , National Nutrition and Food Technology
Research Institute, Faculty of Nutrition Science and Food Technology, Shaheed Beheshti
University of Medical Sciences , PO Box 19395-4741, Tehran, Iran
b
Food and Drug Control Laboratories (FDCLs) – Food and Drug Laboratory Research Center
(FDLRC), Ministry of Health and Medical Education , PO Box 11136-15911, Tehran, Iran
Accepted author version posted online: 04 Nov 2011.Published online: 29 Nov 2011.

To cite this article: A. Abedi , R. Ferdousi , S. Eskandari , F. Seyyedahmadian & R. Khaksar (2011) Determination of lead
and cadmium content in sausages from Iran, Food Additives & Contaminants: Part B: Surveillance, 4:4, 254-258, DOI:
10.1080/19393210.2011.637236

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 Food Additives and Contaminants: Part B
Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2011, 254–258

Determination of lead and cadmium content in sausages from Iran

A. Abedia, R. Ferdousia*, S. Eskandarib, F. Seyyedahmadiana and R. Khaksara
a
Department of Food Science and Technology, National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute, Faculty of Nutrition
Science and Food Technology, Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, PO Box 19395-4741, Tehran, Iran; bFood and
Drug Control Laboratories (FDCLs) – Food and Drug Laboratory Research Center (FDLRC), Ministry of Health and Medical
Education, PO Box 11136-15911, Tehran, Iran
(Received 15 April 2011; final version received 23 October 2011)

The contents of lead and cadmium in five major brands of six types of cooked beef sausages consumed in Iran
were determined by a graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometer (GFAAS) after hydrogen peroxide/nitric
acid digestion. The metal content in the samples, expressed in mg kg1 wet weight, varied from 24.0 to 158.7 with
Downloaded by [University of West Florida] at 18:18 30 December 2014

an average of 53.5 for lead and from 2.2 to 13.5 with an average of 5.7 for cadmium. The highest lead and
cadmium concentrations were obtained from a German sausage (158.7 mg kg1; brand B) and hot dog
(13.5 mg kg1; brand D), respectively. The results indicate that the sausages from Iran have concentrations below
the permitted levels for these heavy metals. The daily dietary intakes and the percentage contribution of the two
considered metals to the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) were calculated for sausages.
Keywords: heavy metals; cadmium; lead; meat

Introduction concentrations of heavy metals in fish, chicken, meat

Pollution of the environment with heavy metals, which
is not always recognised in all countries of the world, is
a serious problem (Abou-Arab 2001). Heavy metals
such as lead and cadmium are toxic, stable and not
easily biodegradable, which can be very harmful even
at low concentrations when ingested over a long period
of time. The ingestion of food is known as an
important way of exposure to heavy metals (Ganjavi
et al. 2010). Metal contamination can take place during
the handling and processing of foods, from the farm to
the point of consumption. Thus, besides the growth of
plants in contaminated soils and the feeding of animals
with feed containing heavy metals, other factors may
contribute to food contamination. Contact between
food and metal, such as processing equipment, storage
and packaging containers, is a significant source of
metal in food (Nasreddine and Parent-Massin 2002).
Because of nutritional value, economic advantage,
variety and facility of preparation, meat products are a
popular food source in most countries of the world.
Thus, it is necessary to enhance the safety and health of
meat products because of increasing consumption of
these products (Demirezen and Uruc 2006). In Iran,
meat products are mainly emulsion-type cooked beef
sausages made from meat, water or ice, oil, salt, spices,
gluten and other additives under a specific technology.
In recent years much attention has been focused on the
and meat products in order to check for those hazards
to human health (Demirbas 1999; Grujic 2000; Abou-
Arab 2001; Emami Khansari et al. 2004; Demirezen
and Uruc 2006; Tuzen and Soylak 2007; Oymak et al.
2009; Uluozlu et al. 2009). Heavy metals, especially
lead and cadmium, can enter the body of cattle and
sheep by them eating forage and drinking water con-
taining these heavy metals; they accumulate in
the liver, muscle and kidneys (Falandysz 1991; Niemi
et al. 1991).
Furthermore, additives of the emulsion-type sau-
sage such as oil, salt, water, spices can contain
significant quantities of heavy metals (Abdel-Rahman
1984; Brunner and Stolle 1995; Roychowdhury et al.
2003; Zcan and Akbulut 2007; Oymak et al. 2009).
The data on the levels of heavy metals in meat
products produced in Iran are very limited. The aim of
this study was to determine the contents of lead and
cadmium in sausages consumed in Tehran and to
estimate the intake of each metal from this source.
Materials and methods
Samples
Five brands of six types of beef sausages (German,
cocktail, hot dog, Lyoner, dry and jambon) were
purchased from local supermarkets in 2009. Samples

*Corresponding author. Email: drferdousi@sbmu.ac.ir

ISSN 1939–3210 print/ISSN 1939–3229 online

 2011 Taylor & Francis
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19393210.2011.637236
http://www.tandfonline.com
 Food Additives and Contaminants: Part B 255

were selected to include the major manufacturers of the Table 1. Operating parameters for the determination of lead
sausages in Tehran. All samples were put in plastic and cadmium in sausage samples.
bags/containers, transported to the laboratory on the
Parameters Lead Cadmium
same day and stored at 18 C until analysis.
Lamp current (mA) 5 4
Wavelength (nm) 283.3 228.8
Slit width (nm) 0.5 0.5
Reagents and standards Maximum absorbance 1.4 0.7
Sample volume (ml) 20 20
All reagents used were of analytical reagent grade.
Modifier volume (ml) 5 5
Distilled-deionised water was used in all experiments. Limit of detection (mg kg1) 0.01 0.002
Standard solutions of lead and cadmium were pro-
Temperature ( C), hold
vided by Merck (Darmstadt, Germany). The standards Heating programme time (s) and Ar flow (l min1)
were prepared from the individual 1000 mg l1 stan-
dard, in 0.1 N HNO3. Working standards were pre- Drying 1 85, 5, 3 85, 5, 3
pared from the previous stock solutions. Drying 2 95, 40, 3 95, 40, 3
Drying 3 120, 10, 3 120, 10, 3
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Ashing 400, 5, 3 250, 5, 3

Apparatus
All glassware was soaked overnight in 10% (v/v) nitric
acid. Glassware for the analysis of lead and cadmium
was rinsed thoroughly with deionised distilled water
and dried before use.
A Varian Spectra AA-20 (Melbourne, VIC,
Australia) atomic absorption spectrometer equipped
with a GTA-96 graphite furnace atomiser and deute-
rium lamp as a background corrector was used in the
experiments. A Varian programmable sample dis-
penser was employed for injecting the solution into
the furnace. All experiments were performed using
pyrolytic-coated partitioned graphite tubes. The sig-
nals were measured as peak area. A 20 ml sample was
mixed with 5 ml of NH4H2PO4 and Mg(NO3)2 matrix
modifier. The operating parameters for lead and
cadmium were set as recommended by the manufac-
turer (Table 1).
Sample preparation and digestion
For the determination of lead and cadmium, 5  0.01 g
of each sample were weighed into a 150 ml beaker, and
50 ml of freshly 1:1 (v/v) H2O2 (30%):HNO3 (65%)
were added slowly in portions. Each beaker was
covered with a watch glass and stored at room
temperature for 48 h. The samples were heated on a
hot plate until the solutions were clear. Heating was
continued until the volume was reduced to about 5 ml.
The solutions were then allowed to cool and sonicated
for 5 min. The clear solutions were transferred into 25-
ml flasks and diluted to the mark with deionised water
and then transferred into lidded tubes in a water bath
of 60 C for 30 min. For each run, samples, spiked
samples and blanks were proceeded accordingly. The
samples were analysed in triplicate. The Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program was
used to calculate standard deviations (SDs) and means.
Gas stop 400, 2, 0 250, 2, 0
Atomisation 1 2100, 1, 0 1800, 0.8, 0
Atomisation 2 2100, 2, 0 1800, 2, 0
Cleaning 2100, 2, 3 1800, 2, 3
Determination of recovery
The recoveries of the metals were determined by
adding increasing amounts of lead and cadmium to
samples which were then passing the digestion proce-
dure. The resulting solutions were analysed. The results
are reported in Table 2. Mean recoveries for lead and
cadmium were 86% and 83% respectively, with coef-
ficients of variation of 5.4% and 2.5%, respectively.
Results and discussion
Lead concentrations in sausage samples
The concentrations of lead in different types of cooked
beef sausages are presented in Table 3 as means and
SDs. Lead contents in different brands of these
sausages were quite variable such as brand A (25.6–
77.1 mg kg1), brand B (31.0–158.7 mg kg1), brand C
(38.8–75.3 mg kg1), brand D (40.3–81.7 mg kg1) and
brand E (24.0–46.3 mg kg1). The minimum and max-
imum lead contents found in the samples were
24.0 mg kg1 in Cocktail sausage (brand E) and
158.7 mg kg1 in German sausage (brand B), respec-
tively. This may be related to treatments of the
products and the kind or amount of spices, meat and
other fillers such as gluten, ice, starch, oil and salt. The
maximum level for lead in cooked cured meat products
is 500 mg kg1 according to the Codex Alimentarius
(1994) and 100 mg kg1 according to the Commission
of the European Communities (2006). Apart from one
sample (German sausage of brand B), lead contents in
all the sausage samples analysed were lower than the
European Commission limit. The average for lead
(53.5 mg kg1) in this study was nearly similar to those
 256 A. Abedi et al.

Table 2. Recoveries of lead and cadmium from sausage samples.

Lead content Lead spiked Recovery Cadmium content Cadmium spiked Recovery
(mg kg1) (mg kg1) (%) (mg kg1) (mg kg1) (%)

5.9 20 83 0.8 2 80
40 93 4 83
80 84 8 85

Table 3. Mean concentrations (mg kg1 wet wt  SD) of lead in cooked beef sausages from Iran.

Sausage type\brand A B C D E

German 77.1  2.5 158.7  7.8 75.3  1.1 81.7  1.5 46.3  4.9
Cocktail 52.0  3.0 35.5  0.9 43.3  4.2 41.7  1.5 24.0  3.6
Hot dog 58.0  5.0 88.7  4.0 43.9  1.6 46.2  0.8 41.67  3.2
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Lyoner 26.1  2.0 87.8  4.2 38.8  0.3 40.3  1.5 36.5  1.5
Dry 35.3  1.1 30.9  1.7 42.2  0.7 45.3  1.1 42.7  2.1
Jambon 25.6  1.4 65.3  4.2 55.3  3.4 67.6  0.5 34.8  0.8

Table 4. Mean concentrations (mg kg–1 wet wt  SD) of cadmium in cooked beef sausages from Iran.

Sausage type\brand A B C D E

German 3.9  0.6 6.3  0.6 7.6  0.4 6.7  0.2 2.2  0.2
Cocktail 3.2  0.3 7.3  0.6 9.0  0.5 9.4  0.4 2.5  0.3
Hot dog 5.8  0.3 11.2  1.1 2.3  0.2 13.5  0.5 2.6  0.3
Lyoner 5.2  0.3 7.2  0.4 4.89  0.4 5.0  0.5 7.6  0.2
Dry 3.6  0.4 2.9  0.4 3.2  0.8 5.2  0.3 6.8  0.3
Jambon 3.2  0.9 5.7  0.35 5.7  0.3 6.5  0.5 5.2  0.2

reported in Turkey (Oymak et al. 2009). However,
these results were lower than those found in Chile
(Muñoz et al. 2005), the Republic of Croatia (Sapunar-
Postruznik et al. 1996), and Turkey (Demirezen and
Uruc 2006). Lower values were found on the island of
Tenerife (Spain). González-Weller et al. (2006)
reported 3.2, 9.1, 6.7 and 4.9 mg kg1 lead in chicken,
turkey, beef and pork meat product, respectively. Lead
levels greater than 0.5–0.8 mg ml1 in blood causes
various abnormalities. Lead accumulates in the skele-
ton, especially in bone marrow. It is a neurotoxin and
causes behavioural abnormalities, retarding intelli-
gence and mental development. It interferes in the
metabolism of calcium and vitamin D and affects
haemoglobin formation and causes anaemia (Memon
et al. 2005).
Cadmium concentrations in sausage samples
Cadmium contents in the sausage samples studied are
given in Table 4. The concentrations of cadmium in the
sausages with different brands were in the range of 3.2–
5.7 mg kg1 for brand A, 2.9–11.2 mg kg1 for brand B,
2.3–9.0 mg kg1 for brand C, 5.0–13.5 mg kg1 for brand
D, and 2.2–7.6 mg kg1 for brand E (mean ¼
5.7 mg kg1). The highest average cadmium content
was found in hot dog (13.5 mg kg1; brand D), while
the lowest value was observed in German sausage
(2.2 mg kg1; brand E). Cadmium concentrations
obtained from the analyses of all sausage samples
were lower than 50 mg kg1, the limit as established by
the European Commission (Commission of the
European Communities 2006). The mean concentra-
tion of cadmium (5.7 mg kg1) in the presented study
was approximately similar to that in Chile (Muñoz
et al. 2005), Tenerife (Spain) (González-Weller et al.
2006), and Turkey (Oymak et al. 2009), and higher
than in Greece (Karavoltsos et al. 2002) and lower than
on the Canary Islands (Spain) (Rubio et al. 2006), the
Republic of Croatia (Sapunar-Postruznik et al. 1996),
Turkey (Demirezen and Uruc 2006), and Banja Luka
(Bosnia) (Grujic 2000). Cadmium can accumulate in
the human body and may induce kidney dysfunction,
skeletal damage and reproductive deficiencies
(Commission of the European Communities 2006).
The maximum tolerable level in the kidney, in order to
avoid abnormal kidney function, is 50 mg g–1 wet

weight (Satarug et al. 2000). Hecht (1983) declared that
cadmium concentrations in meat increase with the age
of the animal and depend on concentrations in the
feed. Generally, the level of elements in meat and meat
products depends on factors such as the environmental
conditions, the type of pasture and the genetic char-
acteristics of the organisms. Furthermore, technolog-
ical treatments are important for levels of elements in
meat products (Demirezen and Uruc 2006).
Estimation of lead and cadmium intakes from sausages
The dietary intake of each heavy metal was calculated
by multiplying the concentration in a particular food
category by the mean weight of that group consumed
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in the daily diet of an average person (Urieta et al.
1996). The average consumption of sausage was
assessed on the basis of data obtained through the
monitoring of the per capita consumption of foodstuffs
in Tehran and reported to be about 27.6 g day1
(National Nutrition and Food Technology Research
Institute (NNFTRI) 2001). Considering this amount
and the mean concentrations of lead (53.5 mg kg1) and
cadmium (5.7 mg kg1) as analysed in these products,
the dietary intakes of lead and cadmium were calcu-
lated as 1.47 and 0.16 mg day1 (10.29 and
1.12 mg week1), respectively. The dietary exposures
of lead and cadmium through meat products in the
literature have been reported as 3.6 and 0.14 mg day1
in Santiago (Chile) (Muñoz et al. 2005) and 3.85 and
0.28 mg day1 in the Republic of Croatia (Sapunar-
Postruznik et al. 1996), respectively. Rubio et al. (2006)
reported 0.21 mg day1 cadmium intake via cold meat
and sausages on the Canary Islands. To evaluate the
health risk of the estimated dietary exposure, it is
compared with the provisional tolerable weekly intake
(PTWI) recommended by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert
Committee for Food Additives (JECFA) for each of
the heavy metals: 25 mg lead kg1 body weight and
7 mg cadmium kg1 body weight, which is equivalent to
243 mg lead day1 and 68 mg cadmium day1 for an
adult weighing 68 kg (World Health Organization
(WHO) 1993). If we express the dietary intake of
lead and cadmium as a percentage of PTWI, their
intake through sausages in Tehran results in 0.6% and
0.23% of the PTWI, respectively.
Conclusion
The levels of lead and cadmium in different types of
sausages of several major brands marketed in Iran
were determined by a suitable and sensitive GFAAS
method. The results obtained in the present study
showed that lead and cadmium levels in all sausages
analysed were acceptable for human consumption.
The level may be reduced by more careful handling and
Food Additives and Contaminants: Part B 257
processing of raw materials. Also, a better selection of
raw material, including analysis for heavy metals prior
to processing, could improve the situation. The
estimated intakes of lead and cadmium from the
weekly consumption of the samples indicated no risk
since they are lower than the permissible tolerable
weekly intakes for these elements. However, lead and
cadmium can enter the human body through other
foods containing these heavy metals. Therefore, it is
recommended that one carry out a regular control of
lead and cadmium concentrations in meat products
and other foods in Iranian supermarkets.
Acknowledgments
Supported by a grant from the National Nutrition and Food
Technology Research Institute (NNFTRI), Tehran, Iran,
grant No. NNFTRI-2484.
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