Trace elements in Foodstuffs from the Mediterranean Basin-Occurrence, Risk Assessment, Regulations, and Prevention strategies: A review
- PMID: 35754061
- DOI: 10.1007/s12011-022-03334-z
Trace elements in Foodstuffs from the Mediterranean Basin-Occurrence, Risk Assessment, Regulations, and Prevention strategies: A review
Abstract
Trace elements (TEs) are chemical compounds that naturally occur in the earth's crust and in living organisms at low concentrations. Anthropogenic activities can significantly increase the level of TEs in the environment and finally enter the food chain. Toxic TEs like cadmium, lead, arsenic, and mercury have no positive role in a biological system and can cause harmful effects on human health. Ingestion of contaminated food is a typical route of TEs intake by humans. Recent data about the occurrence of TEs in food available in the Mediterranean countries are considered in this review. Analytical methods are also discussed. Furthermore, a discussion of existing international agency regulations will be given. The risk associated with the dietary intake of TEs was estimated by considering consumer exposure and threshold values such as Benchmark dose lower confidence limit and provisional tolerable weekly intake established by the European Food Safety Authority and the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, respectively. Finally, several remediation approaches to minimize TE contamination in foodstuffs were discussed including chemical, biological, biotechnological, and nanotechnological methods. The results of this study proved the occurrence of TEs contamination at high levels in vegetables and fish from some Mediterranean countries. Lead and cadmium are more abundant in foodstuffs than other toxic trace elements. Geographical variations in TE contamination of food crops clearly appear, with a greater risk in developing countries. There is still a need for the regular monitoring of these toxic element levels in food items to ensure consumer protection.
Keywords: Foodstuffs; Mediterranean basin; Prevention; Regulations; Risk assessment; Trace elements.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Similar articles
-
Shellfish and residual chemical contaminants: hazards, monitoring, and health risk assessment along French coasts.Rev Environ Contam Toxicol. 2011;213:55-111. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4419-9860-6_3. Rev Environ Contam Toxicol. 2011. PMID: 21541848 Review.
-
Essential and toxic element concentrations in blood and urine and their associations with diet: results from a Norwegian population study including high-consumers of seafood and game.Sci Total Environ. 2013 Oct 1;463-464:836-44. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.06.078. Epub 2013 Jul 15. Sci Total Environ. 2013. PMID: 23867847
-
Review of the toxic trace elements arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury in seafood species from Algeria and contiguous waters in the Southwestern Mediterranean Sea.Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2022 Jan;29(3):3288-3301. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-17130-0. Epub 2021 Nov 10. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2022. PMID: 34755303 Review.
-
Dietary intake of trace elements from commercially important fish and shellfish of Thoothukudi along the southeast coast of India and implications for human health risk assessment.Mar Pollut Bull. 2021 Dec;173(Pt A):113020. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.113020. Epub 2021 Oct 9. Mar Pollut Bull. 2021. PMID: 34649206
-
Heavy metals concentrations in some commercially key species from Sicilian coasts (Mediterranean Sea): Potential human health risk estimation.Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2019 Jan 30;168:466-478. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2018.10.056. Epub 2018 Nov 9. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2019. PMID: 30419523
Cited by
-
Monitoring and Health Risk Assessment of Lead and Cadmium in Date Palm Fruit Cultivars Growing in Morocco.Biol Trace Elem Res. 2024 May 22. doi: 10.1007/s12011-024-04242-0. Online ahead of print. Biol Trace Elem Res. 2024. PMID: 38776020
-
Levels of Essential and Trace Elements in Mozzarella Available on the Slovak Market with the Estimation of Consumer Exposure.Biol Trace Elem Res. 2024 May;202(5):2357-2366. doi: 10.1007/s12011-023-03813-x. Epub 2023 Aug 18. Biol Trace Elem Res. 2024. PMID: 37594594 Free PMC article.
-
Detection Techniques for Lead Ions in Water: A Review.Molecules. 2023 Apr 20;28(8):3601. doi: 10.3390/molecules28083601. Molecules. 2023. PMID: 37110841 Free PMC article. Review.
References
-
- Kabata-Pendias A (2011) Trace elements in soils and plants, 4th edn. CRC Press, Boca Raton
-
- Madejón P, Domínguez MT, Madejón E et al (2018) Soil-plant relationships and contamination by trace elements: a review of twenty years of experimentation and monitoring after the Aznalcóllar (SW Spain) mine accident. Sci Total Environ 625:50–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.277 - DOI - PubMed
-
- Liu L, Yin Y, Hu L et al (2020) Revisiting the forms of trace elements in biogeochemical cycling: analytical needs and challenges. TrAC, Trends Anal Chem 129:115953. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2020.115953 - DOI
-
- Mahajan P, Kaushal J (2018) Role of phytoremediation in reducing cadmium toxicity in soil and water. Journal of Toxicology 2018:1–16. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/4864365 - DOI
-
- Cangemi M, Speziale S, Madonia P et al (2017) Potentially harmful elements released by volcanic ashes: examples from the Mediterranean area. J Volcanol Geoth Res 337:16–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2017.03.015 - DOI
Publication types
MeSH terms
Substances
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources