Arsenic is a natural component of the earth’s crust and is widely distributed throughout the environment in the air, water and land. It is highly toxic in its inorganic form. Contaminated water used for drinking, food preparation and irrigation of food crops pose the greatest threat to public health from arsenic exposure. Arsenic is known food contaminant, especially in products derived from certain types of plants or marine products. In many food products, the limits allowed for arsenic are developed based on total arsenic in the product, which may not really reflect the inherent hazard of the material since it includes organic arsenic, which has a very different toxicological profile. Because of recent concerns raised over arsenic contamination in fish-based and rice-based ingredients, it is necessary to develop and validate a method that will allow for quantitative testing of inorganic versus total arsenic in various food matrices.<br/>To support the development of standard methods of analysis, USP performed a study for arsenic speciation utilizing HPLC hyphenated with ICP/MS for determination of inorganic arsenic total arsenic in rice- and marine-based food matrices such as rice starch, phytic acid, menhaden oil, and krill oil. Sample preparation for arsenic (total) was carried out using microwave-assisted sample digestion technique and the sample preparation for inorganic arsenic was carried out using extraction technique. This presentation will focus on the development of these speciated methods of analysis as well as ongoing work to understanding appropriate levels of elemental impurities in food ingredients.

Arsenic speciation method development for various food matrices

254th National Meeting (2017)

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