Heavy metals and metalloids in selected Mood Foods in Poland: Development of sample preparation and analysis methods and assessment of the health risks of consumption

The subject of the study are Mood Foods, food products that improve well-being and are widely recognized as healthy, but just like other food products, they could be sources of heavy metals in human diet. Elements, such as mercury, lead, cadmium and arsenic, which have neurotoxic effects, can be found in food as a result of air, soil, and underground and groundwater pollution. Therefore, the study aimed to (1) develop and optimize universal sample preparation and ICP-MS analysis methods with high repeatability and recovery, (2) qualitatively and quantitatively analyze arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead contents in various mood food products – hazelnuts, instant oat flakes, roasted buckwheat groats, salmon, tuna, spinach, dark chocolate, rice and green tea, and (3) describe the obtained results and assess the health risk – by calculating Estimated Daily Intake, percentage of Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake, Target Hazard Quotient, Hazard Index, and Carcinogenic Risk – due to consumption of foods containing elements at determined content levels: As: 3.429–4745.289 μg kg⁻¹, Cd: 3.583–721.572 μg kg⁻¹, Hg: 0.355–3044.705 μg kg⁻¹, and Pb: 12.614–1246.174 μg kg⁻¹. It has been shown that regular consumption of certain mood food products could pose non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health risk to consumers.