A new method for determining heavy metals in meat has been created in Russia

MOSCOW, April 15. A method for determining heavy metals in meat using environmentally friendly solvents was developed by scientists from St. Petersburg State University (SPbSU). The results were published in the Microchemical Journal.
As scientists explained, heavy metals are toxic substances such as lead or mercury that can accumulate in the body, causing long-term effects such as weakened immunity, anorexia and cancer.
They enter the body when eating foods containing heavy metals. metals. The increase in these poisons, particularly in meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, mushrooms and dairy products, is a critical public health problem, the researchers explained.

According to experts from St. Petersburg State University, heavy metals in food are currently determined by various methods that require sample decomposition using microwave radiation and concentrated acids. However, this process requires a lot of time and energy consumption. When carrying out such analysis procedures, gases that are toxic to humans and the environment, such as nitrogen oxides, are released into the atmosphere.

Chemists from St. Petersburg State University reported that they have developed an effective option for searching for heavy metals (copper, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, iron, lead and zinc) in meat. Determination of metal content is carried out using solvents based on organic compounds widely used in agriculture and the food industry, such as lactic, malic, citric and tartaric acids.
Determination of heavy metal concentrations in meat products could become more environmentally friendly, according to researchers an alternative to existing approaches due to the refusal to use oxidizing mixtures.

«< p>“We have proposed a new method for determining the concentration of heavy metals in meat products, in which, instead of microwave radiation, metals are extracted from meat under the influence of ultrasound. Moreover, the product is contained in environmentally friendly solvents. The experiments carried out allowed us to compare different options for extracting metals and proved that our method allows us to safely determine the content of metals at the level of the maximum permissible concentration in food products,” said Andrey Shishov, professor of the Department of Analytical Chemistry of St. Petersburg State University.

These safe mixtures , called deep eutectic solvents, are combinations of two or more components, the melting point of which is significantly lower than the melting point of the starting substances, due to which they can be used at room temperature. Scientists said that the extraction efficiency of the proposed method is 85–95%.

At this stage, university scientists have proven the effectiveness of their method in the analysis of chicken meat and beef liver. In the future, the development can be used for other types of food products.
The research was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation.