Risk assessment of cadmium and chromium from chocolate powder

ABSTRACT

An evaluation of the exposition of cadmium and chromium via chocolate drink powder consumption was conducted. The element levels were determined in 34 samples of chocolate drink powder samples of several types (traditional, light, diet, and organic) available in the Brazilian market. The samples were previously treated using acid mineralisation assisted by microwave radiation and analysed by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Concentrations of Cd were in the range 14–124 and 81–4790 µg kg⁻¹ for Cr. The contributions of daily consumption of chocolate drink powder for children would represent 4–35% of the provisional tolerable weekly intake of Cd and 0.03–0.14% of the tolerable daily intake of Cr. Target hazard quotients lower than 0.04 and 0.001 were obtained for Cd and Cr, respectively, indicating that the exposure to these elements through chocolate drink powder do not present any potential risk to human health.

KEYWORDS:

• Chocolate
• cadmium
• chromium
• risk assessment
• GF AAS

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Fapesp, process 2011/21023-3), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and Instituto Nacional de Ciências e Tecnologias Analíticas Avançadas (INCTAA).