Heavy metal toxins in breakfast cereals – a baseline study using hybrid plasma mass spectrometry

Breakfast cereals are made for public consumption and are widely popular all over the world, especially with children. Cereals are derived from plants, therefore, trace metal contamination of the cereal itself has its origin in the vegetable matter from which it is produced.1 Heavy metals2,3 could also infiltrate foodstuff from the equipment that is deployed to process them. However, some toxic elements such as mercury and arsenic, for example, are unlikely to be found at appreciable levels in equipment, thus, any form of contamination could mainly originate from environmental sources.4 Growth of plants linked to cereals depends on certain agricultural conditions and if these conditions lend themselves to pollution, elemental uptake in the plant could result in elevated metal toxins. Contaminated soil conditioners, polluted irrigation water and noxious pesticides could all play a role in contaminating vegetable matter that are associated with cereal production. Our investigation is, therefore, an environmental study and any remedial measures for minimising trace metals in cereals should seriously consider remediating environmental factors associated with plant-based foodstuff.