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Samples of wheat, rye and barley from previous harvests, some of them dating back even to the past century and placed at the authors' disposal by a number of seed growers and governmental research institutions, were examined for their cadmium content by AAS or ICP-AES. Although no statistically valid data could be obtained owing to the low number of samples, it should nevertheless be stressed that the cadmium content found in cereal samples from harvests of the past were within the range of present-day wheat samples. Thus, the variation in wheat samples from former harvests was 20-100 micrograms/kg which is coincident with an average cadmium content of 50-60 micrograms/kg measured in 2000 what samples from the harvests of the last 10 years as determined in a special survey by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry. Comparison of the results for cereals samples from harvests of the past and the samples of the survey conducted by the Ministry does not indicate a trend towards a continuously rising cadmium contents of bread cereals.

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The recommendation of the Federal Health Office with regard to the consumption of wild mushrooms is based on the preliminary permissible intake of cadmium published by WHO, whereby an absorption rate of 5% has been assumed. There are no data published on the availability in the digestive tract of the cadmium accumulated in mushrooms. Therefore the above mentioned absorption rate adopted by WHO has to be taken into account in preventive public health measures. High cadmium contents in feces after rather high consumption of wild mushrooms have therefore to be taken as an indication of excessive cadmium uptake.