Toxic Elements and Microbiological Content of Food: Evidence from a Case Study in a Brazilian City Heavily Contaminated by Lead and Cadmium

• Autor(a) principal: Macedo,Kelly M.
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Silva,Isabella M. M. da, Oliveira,Fábio S. de, Castro,Jacira T., Santos,Daniele C. M. B. dos, Freitas,Fernanda, Jesus,Maykson C. de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-50532017000701220
• topic: E. coli; total coliform; lead; cadmium; contamination

Food security has become a major concern of the world population and this is even more prominence in polluted areas. This study aimed to evaluate microbiological and toxic elements content of local food itens from Santo Amaro, Bahia. The determination of lead, cadmium, Escherichia coli (E. coli) and total coliform were carried out in coriander, cassava, okra, chicken muscle/liver, fish muscle and eggs. The population of total coliform and E. coli were estimated by the express count method using plates EC (AOAC 991.14) and accounting of colonies by colony counter. For toxic elements determination samples were digested using HNO3 and H2O2 following EPA 200.3 using a digester block with cold fingers. The determination of lead and cadmium was performed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometery (ICP OES). The mean total coliform has ranged from < 1 to 4.5 log CFU g-1. Coriander presented higher mean total coliform (4.5 log CFU g-1) and E. coli was higher than recommended levels. The range of toxic elements revealed higher concentrations of lead in chicken muscle (1.25-11.58 mg kg-1) and cadmium in eggs (0.45-1.06 mg kg-1). Finally, the risk to the inhabitants of Santo Amaro was evident and reinforces the importance of effective actions of local authorities.