Lead content of canned fruit

Abstract

Abstract The levels of lead in samples of canned pineapples, lychees, fruit salad, loganberries, blackcurrants, cherries, apricots, pears, raspberries and tomatoes have been determined. The lead content of the 168 samples was in the range 0.02 to 8.16 parts/million, the mean being 0.94 parts/million. Of the 16 samples which were above the statutory limit for lead of 2 parts/million, 12 were loganberries. The inter‐can variation of lead content ranged from 18.2%to 97.8%with a mean of 56.3 %and in some instances, the difference between the mean lead content of different brands of the same fruit was significant.