Metal Toxicity Found in Foodstuffs: A Review

Contamination of foods by heavy metals has a number of different sources. The most significant ones are: contamination of the soil from which foods are produced; residual muds; chemical fertilizers and pesticides used in agriculture; the use of other materials; etc. Since this contamination has so many different sources, there is a wide range of foods contaminated by heavy metals, including products of plant origin (cereals, rice, wheat, edible roots, mushrooms, etc.) as well as foods of animal origin (fish, crustaceans, mollusks).In particular, fish is one of the products most affected by heavy metal contamination, because heavy metals are bioaccumulative in the food chain. When heavy metals accumulate in waters, fish ingest them through their diet and accumulate them over the course of their lives. The heavy metals then reach the consumer when that fish is consumed.