’INTRODUCTION
Metal pollution and food safety with respect to human health
are two important parallel issues all over the world. The occurrence
of metals in food may be natural or due to increased incidences of
human activities like rapid industrialization and anthropogenic life
styles, the latter being considered severe as it commonly allows the
persistence of a range of toxic heavy metals including trace metals
like cadmium, copper, nickel, and lead in the environment.
1
Copper is an essential metal to sustain biological processes, but
excess exposure to copper often results in nausea, vomiting, liver
damage, gastrointestinal problems, and hypertension. On the
other hand, cadmium, nickel, and lead are considered to be toxic,
and their intoxication results in severe detrimental effects. Cadmium-induced toxicity affects the functional and structural integrity of liver and kidneys. Nickel exposure is implicated in lung and
skin cancers. Lead affects the brain functions and testicular
processes and also affects other vital parts of the body through
oxidative stress. Thus, it seems apparent that the essential,
moderately toxic, and toxic heavy metals affect almost all compartments of the vital parts and thereby interfere with biochemical and
physiological alterations. It has also been reported that many
people suffer with ItaiItai syndrome due to the consumption of
fish contaminated with cadmium.
2
Hence, the determination of
heavy metals like cadmium, copper, nickel, and lead in food
samples plays an important role in environmental protection
and food and agricultural chemistry.
Direct analysis of trace levels of metals in environmental and
food samples is difficult because of their very low concentrations