Analysis of food for toxic elements.

The levels of the toxic elements Al, As, Cd, Hg, Pb and Sn are routinely monitored in food to protect the consumer. Increasingly, the chemical forms of As and Hg are also monitored. Analyses are performed to enforce regulatory standards and to accumulate background levels for assessing long-term exposure. The analytical procedures used for these activities evolve as requirements to determine lower levels arise and as both the types and sheer number of different foods that need to be analyzed increase. This review highlights recent work addressing improvements in the analysis of toxic elements in food. The topics covered include contamination control, analytical sample treatment and the common analytical techniques used for food analysis.