Determination of heavy metals in albumen of hen eggs from the Markazi Province (Iran) using ICP-OES technique

Abstract

Increase of distribution of environmental contaminants such as heavy metals have been caused the knowledge of the safety and hygiene of food is very important, especially eggs, because of its role in the daily diet. There are very few studies about the investigation of the heavy metal contents in egg-white. In this study, six heavy metals include Aluminium (Al), Arsenic (As), Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd), Mercury (Hg), Antimony (Sb) in egg-white from 32 industrial poultry farms were investigated, by ICP-OES. All the samples were collected in all area of Markazi Province, Iran in autumn 2013. The mean concentrations of heavy metals in egg-white as follows: 0.119 for Al, 0.785 for As, 0.750 for Pb, 0.249 for Cd, 0.270 for Hg and 0.186 mg/kg for Sb. Also, the concentration of the some heavy metals were higher than maximum allowable concentration that probably it is associated to use pesticides and activities of industrial factories around the poultry farms.

• Albumen
• egg-white
• food safety
• heavy metals
• hen eggs
• ICP-OES

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the staff of Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this article. This article was financially supported by the authors.