Migration of iron, lead, cadmium and tin from tinplate-coated cans into chickpeas

Abstract

Migration studies of trace metals were carried out on coated chickpea cans marketed in Lebanon. Four elements – iron (Fe), tin (Sn), lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) – were analysed by atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) after microwave digestion. Over 3 months, three different storage temperatures (5°C, room temperature and 40°C) were tested. In all cases, the migration of Fe reached a plateau after around 50 days of storage, while the migration of Pb was slow till 50 days, then it increased rapidly. Cd and Sn levels did not increase. Moreover, no effect of temperature was observed in the case of Fe, whereas Pb levels showed slower migration in cans stored at 5°C. Comparing cans from different chickpea brands (Lebanese and foreign) showed that the characteristics of the container have an effect on metal release.

Keywords:

• metal packaging
• canned chickpeas
• migration
• iron
• tin
• lead
• cadmium
• atomic absorption spectrometry

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute (LARI) for providing technical support to this work.

Funding

This work was funded by the research team ER004 “Lebanese Food Packaging,” which is supported financially by the Doctoral School of Science and Technology (EDST) of the Lebanese University. The authors gratefully acknowledge this financial support.