INVESTIGATION THE CONTENT OF SOME HEAVY METALS IN COLORED PLASTIC TABLE DISHES.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the existence of some heavy metals (lead, cadmium, chromium) in colored plastic table dishes and study the migration of these metals to the food meals and the affecting factors in migration , such as storage period and food temperature. Six kinds of colored plastic table dishes were collected from Baghdad markets. The heavy metals in table dishes and in the prepared food meals put in them were estimated using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (Shimadzu A5000). The results indicated the existence of lead in all samples (1.61_1.00 mg/ kg) and chromium in three samples (0.85_0.97 mg/ kg) while other samples are free of chromium, and cadmium. Investigating the migration of these metals to food at different conditions of temperature and storage period revealed that migration increases with increasing temperature of the food and increasing the period of food contact with the dishes as a result of increasing the solubility of components used in dish industry such as the dyes used for coloring the dishes.