Determination of Some Elements in Canned and Frozen Vegetables sold in Balıkesir (Türkiye) Markets and Nutritional Assessment

Abstract

In this work, determination of some elements including Pb, Ni, Ba, Fe, Zn, Mg, Mn, Al, Cu, Mo, Ca, B, Cr, Cd, V and Co were carried out in some canned and frozen vegetable samples sold in Balıkesir, Türkiye. The study covered randomly chosen 13 canned and frozen samples such as green peas, okra, shell bean, sweet corn, green beans, garniture and tomato paste. Mineralization of the samples was achieved using microwave assisted wet digestion in closed vessels. The element contents were determined using ICP OES. The element contents were between 0.16-1.86 mg kg-1 for Ni; 0.33-5.02 mg kg-1 for Ba; 4.20-32.22 mg kg-1 for Fe; 1.65-14.64 mg kg-1 for Zn; 124.83-1016.79 mg kg-1 for Mg; 0.87-4.99 mg kg-1 for Mn; 0.32-1.74 mg kg-1 for Al; 0.78-14.97 mg kg-1 for Cu; 0.38-4.24 mg kg-1 for Mo; 42.60-1607.40 mg kg-1 for Ca and 0.96-7.56 mg kg-1 for B. Additionally, Pb was determined in only frozen green peas as 1.3±0.1 mg kg-1. In general, the highest element contents were found in frozen samples. In terms of nutritional assessment, estimated daily intakes of the elements were compared with recommended dietary allowances (RDA), nutrition reference values (TFC) and daily tolerable upper intake levels (UL) which were established by World Health Organization, Turkish Food Codex and Institute of Medicine, respectively. The results showed that the element contents of the analysed samples did not exceeded the permissible limits set by various health organizations. It is concluded that the contamination of these products may be an important threatening for public health. Therefore, monitoring of these samples should be a vital strategy for food industry.