164 THE SCREENING OF CHROMIUM, LEAD, CADMIUM AND MERCURY IN YOGURTS

Abstract

In our study, we have focused on monitoring the content of cromium, lead, cadmium and mercury in the 11 samples of yogurt, available in the sales network of the Slovak Republic and comparing it with the HighestPermissibleQuantity (HPQ). Samples of yogurt were mineralized by microwave digestion unit MARS X-press. Heavy metals were determined by atomic absorption spectrometer VARIAN 240 FS and automatic mercury analyser AMA 254. On the basis of our findings it was shown that the content of Cr, Pb, Cd and Hg of the samples do not exceeded the HPQ, the content of cromium was in the range of 0.000 - 0.250 mg.kg-1, lead content was 0.000 - 0.091 mg.kg-1, cadmium content was 0.005 - 0.039 mg.kg-1 and mercury content was 0.000144 - 0.003252 mg.kg-1. The measured values were compared with the applicable legislative provisions for heavy metals maximum permissible levels of contaminants in yogurt by the food codex of Slovak Republic. During analysis, we found that none of the samples has exceeded the highest amount of all heavy metals in the food codex of the Slovak Republic.