Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Elemental composition of Jamaican foods 1: A survey of five food crop categories

  • Published:
Environmental Geochemistry and Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The concentrations of 27 elements in Jamaican food categories consisting of fruit, legumes, leafy and root vegetables and other root crops are reported. The main analytical techniques used were neutron activation analysis and flame and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The results are compared, where possible, with values from Denmark, the United Kingdom, the United States and Nigeria, and with some regulatory limits. Over 75% of the results for antimony, arsenic, barium, cerium, thorium and uranium were below the respective sample detection limits but even among these, some of the maximum values observed indicate that further examination may be useful for those foods grown in the regions of highest uptake and consumed in large amounts. The other elements reported are bromine, cadmium, calcium, caesium, cerium, chromium, copper, europium, hafnium, iron, lanthanum, lead, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, rubidium, scandium, samarium, sodium, strontium, thorium, uranium, and zinc. Many of these elements occur at concentration levels above those reported from the other countries but it seems unlikely that most of these will contribute significantly to public health risk. However, at this stage cadmium clearly appears to be the element of greatest concern in the Jamaican food chain. The observed range of cadmium concentrations suggests that factors such as land selection, coupled perhaps where necessary, with suitably modified agricultural practices, is a feasible way to reduce the cadmium content of certain local foods.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). 1992 Toxicological Profile for Barium, United States Public Health Service.

  • Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). 1999 Toxicological Profile for Cadmium, United States Public Health Service.

  • Anke M, Grün M, Partschefeld M. 1976 The essentiality of arsenic for animals. In Hemphill DD, ed. Trace Substances in Environmental Health – X, Proceedings of the University of Missouri’s Tenth Annual Conference on Trace Substances in Environmental Health. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, pp. 403–409.

  • S Cai L Yue Q Shang G Nordberg (1995) ArticleTitleCadmium exposure among residents in an area contaminated by irrigation water in China Bull World Health Organization 73 359–367

    Google Scholar 

  • CCME. 2001 Canadian Soil Quality: Guidelines for the Protection of Environment. Ottawa, Canada: Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment.

  • RL Chaney JA Ryan Y-M Li SL Brown (1998) Soil cadmium as a threat to human health MJ McLaughlin BR Singh (Eds) Cadmium in Soils, Plants and the Food Chain Kluwer Academic Publ. Dordrecht 219–256

    Google Scholar 

  • Currie LA. 1968 Limits for qualitative detection and quantitative determination: Application to radiochemistry, analytical chemistry 40, 586–593.

  • Danish Environmental Protection Agency. 2002 http://www.msc.dk/udgiv/publications/2002/87-7972-025-0/html/kat18_eng.htm

  • Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, Ministry of Food, Fisheries and Agriculture, Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition. 2002 Danish Food Composition Databank.

  • FSANZ. 2002 Australia and New Zealand Food Standards Code., Standard 1.4.1, Contaminants and Natural Toxicants, http://www.anzfa.gov.au/

  • Guo B. 1987 A new application field for rare earth – agriculture. Rare Earth Horizons – 1987 Proceedings of a Conference at the National Measurement Laboratory, Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce, Canberra, pp. 237–246.

  • D Helsel (1990) ArticleTitleLess than obvious: statistical treatment of data below the detection limit Environ Sci Technol 24 IssueID12 1767–1174

    Google Scholar 

  • Lachat Instruments. 1999 Milwaukee Wisconsin, Method Manual, Method #12-115-01-1-E.

  • GC Lalor (1995) A Geochemical Atlas of Jamaica Canoe Press, University of the West Indies Kingston, Jamaica

    Google Scholar 

  • G Lalor R Rattray P Simpson M Vutchkov (1999) ArticleTitleGeochemistry of an arsenic anomaly in St Elizabeth, Jamaica. Environ Geochem Health 21 3–11

    Google Scholar 

  • G Lalor R Rattray M Vutchkov B Campbell K Lewis-Bell (2001) ArticleTitleBlood lead levels in Jamaican school children The Sci Total Environ 269 IssueID1–3 171–181 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0048-9697(00)00828-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lalor GC, Vutchkov M, Davies BE. 2000a Cadmium in Jamaican Soils; Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) Workshop on Environmental Cadmium in the Food Chain: Sources, Pathways, and Risks; Belgian Academy of Sciences, Brussels, 13–16 September, 2000, http://www.icsu-scope.org/cdmeeting/lalor%s20abstract.htm.

  • GC Lalor M Vutchkov C Grant J Preston AMG Figueiredo DIT Favaro (2000) ArticleTitleINAA of trace elements in biological materials using the SLOWPOKE-2 reactor in Jamaica J Radioanalyt Nucl Chem 244 IssueID2 263–266 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1006777929225

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • JM McKenzie-Parnell G Eynon (1987) ArticleTitleEffect on New Zealand adults consuming large amounts of cadmium in oysters Trace Substances Environ Health 21 420–430

    Google Scholar 

  • H Morgan DL Simms (1998) ArticleTitleThe Shipham Report: Discussion and Conclusions The Sci Total Environ Special Issue 75 IssueID1 135–143 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0048-9697(88)90162-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LS Morton CV Evans G Harbottle GO Estes (2001) ArticleTitlePedogenic fractionation and bioavailability of uranium and thorium in naturally radioactive Spodosols Soil Sci Soc Amer J 64 IssueID4 1997–2001

    Google Scholar 

  • K Nogawa (1981) Itai–itai disease and follow-up studies JO Nriagu (Eds) Cadmium in the Environment, Part 2 Wiley New York 1–37

    Google Scholar 

  • OJEC. 2001 Commission Regulation (EC) No. 466/2001, Official Journal of the European Communities, L 77/1–13.

  • COB Okoye (2001) ArticleTitleTrace metal concentrations in Nigerian fruits and vegetables Int J Environ Studies 58 501–509

    Google Scholar 

  • AM Perez-Granados MP Vaquero (2002) ArticleTitleSilicon, aluminium, arsenic and lithium: essentiality and human health implications J Nutr Health Aging 6 IssueID2 154–162

    Google Scholar 

  • I Thornton PW Abrahams (1983) ArticleTitleSoil ingestion – a major pathway of heavy metals into livestock grazing contaminated land Sci Total Environ 28 282–294

    Google Scholar 

  • USDA. 2002, United States Department of Agriculture, Nutrient Data Laboratory, Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 15. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/

  • G Ysart P Miller M Crossdale H Crews P Robb M Baxter C De L’Argy N Harrison (2000) ArticleTitle1997 UK Total Diet Study – dietary exposures to aluminium, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, selenium, and zinc Food Add Contam 17 IssueID9 775–786 Occurrence Handle10.1080/026520300415327

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gerald Lalor.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Howe, A., Fung, L.H., Lalor, G. et al. Elemental composition of Jamaican foods 1: A survey of five food crop categories. Environ Geochem Health 27, 19–30 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-004-5671-7

Download citation

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-004-5671-7

Key words

Navigation