Measurement of Cadmium (Cd) and Lead (Pb) in Food Additives by Electrothermal Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (ETAAS)

Introduction

A food additive is defined in Japan's Food Sanitation Act as "an item to be used for the purpose of storage or processing of food, which is added to, mixed with, or diffused into food in any manner." Food additives are used for a variety of purposes, as, for example, preservatives, sweeteners, coloring agents, and stabilizers. Test methods and component standards have been established for many of these, and have been published as a food additives compendium titled "Japan's Specifications and Standards for Food Additives." One of the purity test items is heavy metal testing (in terms of lead content), for which the eighth edition of the compendium adopts a colorimetric method using Nessler cylinders. However, in the ninth edition, a different test method is under review, in which the element lead is handled individually. Here, we introduce an example of analysis of cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) in α -cyclodextrin (cyclic oligosaccharide), a substance used in functional foods, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, etc. The analysis was conducted by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) using the AA-7000 atomic absorption spectrophotometer.

October 8, 2014 GMT