Quantification and Risk Assessment of Lead, Cadmium, Arsenic and Other Harmful Metals in Calcium Supplements in China

Yuyang Yao^{1, 2}, Linxiao Guo^{1, 3}, Jie Zhou⁴, Congcong Yu^{1, 2}, Xueying Geng^{1, 2} and Shengquan Mi^{1, 2,}

¹College of Biochemical Engineering, Beijing Union University, Beijing, China

²Beijing Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substances and Functional Foods, Beijing, China

³Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and control, Beijing, China

⁴Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Key Laboratory of Vegetables Quality and Safety Control, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing, China

Cite this paper:
Yuyang Yao, Linxiao Guo, Jie Zhou, Congcong Yu, Xueying Geng and Shengquan Mi. Quantification and Risk Assessment of Lead, Cadmium, Arsenic and Other Harmful Metals in Calcium Supplements in China. Journal of Food and Nutrition Research. 2023; 11(2):150-157. doi: 10.12691/jfnr-11-2-6

Abstract

Harmful metals are easily enriched in the human body and damage our health. The aim of this study was to conduct risk assessment on commercially available calcium supplements in China by analyzing, the contents of 6 harmful metal elements, including arsenic, lead, cadmium, chromium, aluminum and mercury, and calcium according to Chinese National Standards and Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives. A total of 82 calcium supplements from China market was collected and analyzed for selected metal elements. The results showed the ranges of content of arsenic, lead, cadmium, chromium, aluminum, and mercury in calcium supplements were 0.01~15.34, 0.001~8.49, ND (not detected) ~1.104, 0.09~192.66, 3.32~761.11, and ND~0.036 mg/kg, respectively. Calcium supplements were more easily contaminated with lead, arsenic and chromium, but their contents were within the safe range. The exposure limits (MOE) of lead in calcium supplements for both children and adults was close to 1, which was close to the upper safe limit. Besides, the maximum daily exposure of chromium exceeded the maximum tolerable dose of chromium for children and adults, which should be taken seriously.

Keywords:
calcium supplements arsenic lead cadmium harmful metal risk assessment

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