Ocurrence of cadmium in cereal-based baby foods from conventional and organic farming

Abstract

Food ingestion is an obvious way of exposure to metals. Cereal foods are an important source of nutrition in the diet of infants and children, and are among the first solid foods eaten. Infants have a more limited diet and consume a higher proportion of their body weight than adults. Cadmium is a toxic metal that occurs naturally in soil, spreading in human and other animal food chain. Due to cadmium content of fertilisers used in conventional farming, there has been a crescent interest in organic products, thought as less harmful to environment and healthier. In the present study, ten samples of both conventional and organic production were analysed for cadmium content using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy, after dry ashing. All values were under the maximum admissible cadmium content for cereals. Mean cadmium levels were found to range from <1.2 to 9.0 and 9.0 to 69.0 μg/Kg fresh weight in conventional and organic samples, respectively. Cadmium content in organic samples is higher than in conventional ones. Further studies should be performed in order to analyse a larger number and variety of samples, and also to study other conditions that may influence the cadmium content in food.

Keywords

• cádmio, agricultura biológica, agricultura convencional, alimentação infantil