Inorganic Contaminants Evaluation in Tuberous and Leafy Vegetables Consumed in Paraíba Valley, Brazil

The aim of the present study is to investigate the aluminum, cadmium and lead concentrations in vegetables such as lettuce, potatoes, carrots, beets and cassava often consumed in human diet. Calcination and acid digestion methods were used to prepare the samples. The Spike test has shown that the methods were viable for almost all samples. The recovered analyte percentage ranged from 88.0% to 108.7% in the acid digestion, and from 55.1% to 109.6% in the calcination method. Comparative analyses conducted in lettuce samples have shown lead concentrations 26.4 ± 2.6 mg kg-1 in electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometer (ETAAS) and 33.3 ± 0.3 mg kg-1 in inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES). The herein presented results allow saying that the concentrations of the elements analyzed in each sample were above the limit set by the Brazilian Ministry of Health and within the tolerance limit set by the Codex Alimentarius.