Determination of Heavy Metals Content in Canned Fruits and Vegetables Using MP-AES

Ang, Wei Seng (2019) Determination of Heavy Metals Content in Canned Fruits and Vegetables Using MP-AES. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

Canned fruits and vegetables nowadays are very common in the market and well-known for its long shelf life. However, there is a suspect on there might be leakage or release of heavy metal into the food from the packaging especially tin and can. In order to test it out, a few canned food samples (longan, lettuce and pineapple) were being dried, and heated in furnace to ashes then digest using 1 M HNO3. The method used was dry ashing instead of wet digestion due to the needs of perchloric acid which is highly explosive and requires a specific perchloric fume hood. The resulting solution were being analyzed using MP-AES along with all the standard solutions of the chosen element ( Mn, Ni,Co, Pb, Zn, Cd, and Cr). It was being found out that canned pineapple has the highest concentration of manganese and chromium which is 76.63 μg /L and 17.34 μg /L respectively compared to the other two canned food in terms of these two elements content. Canned longan on the other hand showed highest concentration of nickel, zinc and lead with a reading of 7.25 μg /L, 6.54 μg /L, and 22.65 μg /L respectively comparing to the other two canned food. Based on the above mentioned heavy metals, canned lettuce showed the lowest concentration for each of the element. For cadmium and cobalt, the concentration in all the three canned food is too low and hence not detected by the MP-AES.