Arsenic in Cooked Seafood Products:  Study on the Effect of Cooking on Total and Inorganic Arsenic Contents

Abstract

Total and inorganic arsenic contents were analyzed in cooked seafood products consumed in Spain during the period July 1997-June 1998: hake, meagrim, small hake, anchovy, Atlantic horse mackerel, sardine, bivalves, crustaceans, squid, and salted cod. Various cooking treatments were used (grilling, roasting, baking, stewing, boiling, steaming, and microwaving). The results obtained were compared statistically with those found previously in the same products raw, and they showed that after cooking there was a significant increase in the concentration of total arsenic for salted cod and bivalves, and in the concentration of inorganic arsenic for bivalves and squid. The mean content of inorganic arsenic was significantly higher in bivalves than in any other type of seafood. For the Spanish population, the mean intake of total arsenic estimated on the basis of the results obtained in this study is 245 microg/day. The intake of inorganic arsenic (2.3 microg/day) represents 1.7% of the World Health Organization provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI), leaving an ample safety margin for this population, which has a very high consumption of seafood.

Individual lifetime exposure to inorganic arsenic using a space–time information system

“…Questions about the usual consumption of foods high in inorganic arsenic including rice, Wsh, shellWsh, seaweed, and mushrooms were included. A review of the literature (Almela et al 2002;Dabeka et al 1993;Devesa et al 2001;MacIntosh et al 1997;Schoof et al 1999;Tao and Bolger 1999) suggests that the aforementioned foods are among the major sources of inorganic arsenic in the North American diet. As(III) and As(V) together constitute the inorganic species commonly ingested, and are believed to be the most toxic forms of arsenic found in the diet (Devesa et al 2001).…”

“…A review of the literature (Almela et al 2002;Dabeka et al 1993;Devesa et al 2001;MacIntosh et al 1997;Schoof et al 1999;Tao and Bolger 1999) suggests that the aforementioned foods are among the major sources of inorganic arsenic in the North American diet. As(III) and As(V) together constitute the inorganic species commonly ingested, and are believed to be the most toxic forms of arsenic found in the diet (Devesa et al 2001). There is some debate, however, about whether inorganic arsenic compounds, in contrast to organo-arsenic compounds, are found in seafood (Almela et al 2002;Schoof et al 1999).…”

“…Inorganic arsenic concentrations were estimated to be 0.79 g/g in rice (Lamont et al 2003), 0.293 g/g in seaweed (Almela et al 2002), 0.01 g/g in Wsh and 0.04 g/ g in shellWsh (Devesa et al 2001). No reports of inorganic arsenic concentrations were found for mushrooms.…”

Cooking makes cadmium contained in Chilean mussels less bioaccessible to humans

“…However, depending on the study, the effects of cooking on metal content in seafood are different and they may vary according to the element considered and its chemical speciation. Whereas Atta, El-Sebaie, Noaman, and Kassab (1997) demonstrated that the cooking process did not concentrate elements like Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in the fish Tilapia nilotica, Devesa et al (2001) reported both reductions and increases in total arsenic contents after the cooking process in fish and bivalve, due either to solubilisation/volatilisation or concentration of the metalloid. The element concentrations in tissues after cooking appear also to depend on the type of cooking (Ersoy, Yanar, Kucukgulmez, & Celik, 2006;Perelló, Martí-Cid, Llobet, & Domingo, 2008) and the considered species, as, for example, 134 Cs is not concentrated in cooked mussel tissue (Metian et al, 2009) whereas it is in fish tissues (Burger et al, 2004).…”

Arsenic – Pesticides with an Ambivalent Character

“…Table 3. Estimated daily intake of arsenic by the general population ( (Devesa et al 2001;Jelinek and Corneliussen 1977;Leblanc et al 2005;Mohri, Hisanaga, and Ishinishi 1990;Saipan and Ruangwises 2009;Sorvari et al, 2007;Watanabe et al 2004) The principal natural source is volcanic activity, with minor contribution by exudates from vegetation and wind-blow dust. Man-made emissions to air arise from the smelting of metals, the combustion of fuels, especially of low-grade brown coal, and the use of pesticides.…”