Metal Content and Stable Isotope Determinations in Daily Food from the Romanian Market

Abstract

Food quality and safety must be a constant concern both for consumers and for authorities. The education for quality and the active involvement, coherent and sustained by the state, through the implementation of a quality strategy at the national level should be the main "forces" that can contribute to the implementation and certification of quality management systems in the agri-food sector. Meat and egg products are essential components in the human diet; therefore, their contamination with heavy metals plays a significant role in public health.

The aim of this work is to present the elemental and isotope profiles of two important food matrix, pork meat and hen egg. Thus, the concentrations of several human essential trace and toxic elements were analyzed in 60 animal-based foods, including pork meat and hen eggs, collected from the Romanian market. The inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry technique (ICP-MS) was used for the determinations. Regarding food safety, the toxic element concentrations in most investigated samples were below the maximum permitted levels set by Romanian and European legislation.

Along with ICP-MS, Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) was used to obtain the ¹³C isotopic fingerprints of investigated samples, to emphasize the feeding regime of animals, based on C3 and/or C4 plants.