Assesement of mineral nutrients, heavy metals and pesticides in poultry liver using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Poultry liver is considered to be one of the most important sources of mineral nutrients in humans' diet, but due to its specific structure tends to bind chemical contaminants such as heavy metals and pesticides. The aim of this study was to perform a short characterization of mineral nutrients concentration and heavy metals and pesticides contamination in commercial poultry liver samples and their possible effect on food safety. Eleven commercial poultry liver samples coming from 3 different Romanian slaughterhouses were submitted to analysis. Heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Al) and mineral nutrients (Ni, Cr, Mn, Cu, Fe, Zn, Ca, Mg, K, Na) were determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry. For organochlorine and organophosphorus pesticides quantification Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry was used. The concentrations for heavy metals ranged from 0.008 to 0.03 mg/kg Cd, 0.02 to 0.06 mg/kg Pb, 0.001 to 0.002 mg/kg Hg and 0.09 to 0.6 mg/kg Al. For all samples, the values of organochlorine and organophosphorus pesticides were under the limit of detection. For mineral nutrients, concentrations ranged from 0.02 to 0.07 mg/kg Ni; 0.02 to 0.09 mg/kg Cr; 0.5 to 1.32 mg/kg Mn; 0.9 to 2.6 mg/kg Cu; 12.9 to 48.7 mg/kg Fe; 3.7 to 7.7 mg/kg Zn, 35.6 to 62.3 mg/kg Ca, 86.6 to 167.2 mg/kg Mg, 1555.9 to 1668 mg/kg K, 593.51 to 1127.8 mg/kg Na. Although it is known that people ingest heavy metals and pesticides from animal products, the concentrations obtained in this study showed that there is no risk for human health linked to the consumption of poultry liver.