Episode transcript

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For Food Safety in a Minute, this is Susie Craig.

For sixty years, the Food and Drug Administration has tracked heavy metals in our food supply. Even trace amounts of arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead in food, water, and air once ingested stay in our bodies.

Heavy metals in food come from naturally occurring and environmental sources. Food may be grown in soil or irrigated with water containing higher levels of heavy metals. Food processing and handling food may increase or decrease levels. Whether naturally occurring or environmental, experts from academia, government, and industry continue to monitor and study their effects on our health.

Read a free research-based report from the Institute of Food Technologists. Look online for Challenges, Risks, and Potential Solutions to Mitigate Heavy Metal Exposure: A Roundtable Discussion.

This is Susie Craig from Washington State University Extension.

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Resources

Institution of Food Technologists (10/24). Challenges, Risks, and Potential Solutions to Mitigate Heavy Metal Exposure: A Roundtable Discussion.

https://164454.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/164454/Challenges%2c%20Risks%20and%20Potential%20Solutions%20to%20Mitigate%20Heavy%20Metal%20Exposure-1.pdf. Accessed online 12/8/24.

United States Department of Agriculture – Agriculture Research Service. Food Surveys Research Group: Beltsville, Maryland, What We Eat in America.

https://www.ars.usda.gov/northeast-area/beltsville-md-bhnrc/beltsville-human-nutrition-research-center/food-surveys-research-group/docs/wweianhanes-overview/. Accessed online 12/8/24.