Literature data on Chromium show that trivalent chromium has low acute and long term toxicity whilst hexavalent chromium is acutely toxic and produces long term effects on hematological parameters and liver. Continuous exposure to high concentrations of hexavalent chromium in drinking water results in intestinal tumors in mice but not rats. However, evidence of the carcinogenic potential of chromium has been demonstrated in rats but not consistently in mice. Cr (III) organic complexes (chromium picolinate) did not show evident adverse effects after repeated oral exposure. Both in vitro and in vivo data show that trivalent chromium is not genotoxic whilst hexavalent chromium is genotoxic. Chromium has been shown to affect sperm, estrous cycle and fetal development. Human toxicity data reveals mixed results but there is some evidence that hexavalent chromium can increase the risk of cancer. Data on Nickel show that nickel soluble compounds (nickel sulphate, nickel chloride or nickel nitrate) have acute and long term toxicity and produce oxidative stress and long term effects on liver. Less soluble compounds (nickel sulfides or nickel oxides) are less toxic. Nickel shows genotoxic effects both in vitro and in vivo. Only a limited number of studies on carcinogenic effects after oral exposure to nickel compounds are available. These studies showed no neoplastic effects in rats after oral administration. Nickel has been shown to affect sperm, live litter size and post-implantation loss. Teratogenic effects are reported on Amphibian embryos. Nickel can affect neurodifferentiation, the T-cell system and suppress the activity of natural killer cells. Human data reveals that nickel is excreted in the urine following oral exposure and that this increases with increasing age. There is some evidence that nickel might promote oral cancer etiology but no clear evidence that nickel can increase the risk of respiratory cancer.

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Potassium polyaspartate (KPPA) is a food additive used for wine stabilization. KPAA was included in the list of additives allowed in EU, with the Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/1399, having received a positive opinion by EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) in 2016. KPAA is rich in negative charges, which are essential for its enological function consisting in binding positive ions in order to reduce wine instability. Concerns were raised on the fact that the same binding properties could be responsible for a reduction of microelement bioavailability in humans. For this reason and for the protection of consumers' health, the binding properties of potassium polyaspartate versus three minerals (calcium, iron, magnesium) was assayed using the Size-Exclusion Chromatography (SEC). Aliquots obtained by SEC were analysed for their content in polyaspartate (by microbiuret method) and bound minerals (by ICP-OES method). The results obtained by this research shows that, when potassium polyaspartate is added to wine, the negative charges of the additive are saturated, as expected by the specific role of KPAA in tartaric stabilization. In conclusions, the effect on mineral bioavailability must be considered negligible.