Why is it important?
Heavy metals, also called trace elements are naturally present in the environment (air, water, soil). These heavy metals can appear as residues in feed and foodstuffs due to their presence in the environment (resulting from human activities such as agriculture, industry, or following contamination during storage or processing). The accumulation of heavy metals in an organism represents a high risk to health. This could result from two situations:
- Exposure to a high dose (acute toxicity)
- Long-term exposure to lower doses (accumulation in the tissues and chronic toxicity)
Regulation EC 1881/2006 sets maximum levels for certain contaminants in foodstuffs, in particular for lead, cadmium, mercury and inorganic tin. Monitoring of residues of chemical elements in food of animal origin is set out in Directive 96/23 / EC.
How Upscience can help you?
Upscience offers to detect and quantify heavy metals in all foodstuffs (including baby food), feed and pet food products through Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry (ICP-AES, ICP-MS) and Potentiometry.