Essential and toxic trace elements in chocolate: Occurrence data, assessment of nutritional merits and risk evaluation |
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| Chekri, R., Bemrah, N., Kandia, D., Guérin, T., Noël, L., Jitaru, P. |
- Abstract:
- The aim of the study was the assessment of the balance of essential and toxic elements in chocolate in order to evaluate its quality and its nutritional merits. For this purpose, 85 samples of the mostly consumed chocolates in France of different types: dark and milk chocolates, powdered chocolates in addition to cocoa beans were collected from regular markets and analysed in terms of essential (Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Se and Zn), non-essential (B, Ba, Co, Ni, Sr, Ti and V) as well as toxic elements (Al, As, Cd, Sb and Pb). Cocoa beans are found to have higher contents of the measured elements followed by dark or powdered chocolates then by milk chocolates excepted for Ca and Na which are higher in milk chocolates. The latter results show a negative correlation between the cocoa content and Ca and Na concentrations, which can be attributed to the presence of these elements in milk hence leading to an increase of their levels in the milk-chocolate type compared to cocoa solely. Among the toxic elements, the highest mean levels were found for Al (43.1 mg kg-1) and Cd (0.227 mg kg-1) in powdered chocolates and cocoa beans respectively, whereas the levels of other toxic elements were very low (generally ≤ 0.01 – 0.07 mg kg-1). It is worth to note that significant difference (p < 0.05) was observed between dark and milk chocolates for most elements while no differences were found between bio and regular dark chocolates except for B, V, Fe, Zn, Se, Mo and Cd (p < 0.05). Nevertheless, it is difficult to directly link these findings to the practices of organic farming. Finally, Cd content was significantly higher in bio (0.378 mg kg-1) than regular chocolate (0.114 mg kg-1). The exposure assessment was estimated and compared to the second French total diet study (TDS2), which was undertaken by the French Food Safety Agency in 2006. The exposition was quite similar in terms of toxic elements excepted from Cd which was ˜ 4 and 5 times higher than that from TDS2 for children and adults, respectively. The same observation was made for the intakes estimation (adults and children) concerning others elements with comparable results, excepted for Ca, Cr, K, Mg, Mn which were ˜ 2 times lower than those of TDS2 and for Na (˜ 4 times). No differences were found for Mg and Mn intakes for the adults.
- Keywords:
- chocolate, occurrence data, essential and toxic elements, exposure assessment
- Download:
- IMEKO-TC23-2017-028.pdf
- DOI:
- -
- Event details
- IMEKO TC:
- TC23
- Event name:
- 3rd IMEKOFOODS Conference
- Title:
Metrology Promoting Standardization and Harmonization in Food and Nutrition
- Place:
- Thessaloniki, GREECE
- Time:
- 01 October 2017 - 04 October 2017