Investigatory Survey of the Extent of Contamination of Food by Aluminum

Abstract

Aluminum is not an essential element to human and is considered to be a toxic metal ion. The concentrations of aluminum in some Egyptian foods (Meat, poultry products, fish, grain, beverages, vegetables, fruits, dessert, sugar, milk, dairy, products, spices, and others) collected from local markets in Alexandria and EL-Gharbia governorates were determined. The results indicated that aluminum concentration varied according to the type of foods, processing treatments, food additives and location of collected. The highest mean concentrations of aluminum were found in tomatoes(1631.33mg/kg), ketchup(12725.2mg/kg) , green onion fresh(1094.53 mg/kg), tea leaves (1034.80mg/kg), rocket fresh (897.6mg/kg), cream cheese (793.0 mg/kg), vegetar spiced coating (703.80mg/kg) and traceale (526.4 mg/kg)(dry weight basis). The mean values of aluminum concentration in bread samples ranged from 57.2 to 1748.4 mg/kg (dry weight). The results of this study indicate the presence of high levels of aluminum in some food groups sold in the local markets of Egypt representing public health hazards of the consumers.