Kataoka Yohei, Watanabe Takahiro, Hayashi Kyoko, Akiyama Hiroshi
National Institute of Health Sciences.
Shokuhin Eiseigaku Zasshi. 2018;59(6):269-274. doi: 10.3358/shokueishi.59.269.
Chocolate and cocoa are manufactured from cacao beans produced by the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao). These products may contain cadmium (Cd), which originates from contaminated soil. Here, we surveyed the Cd concentrations in dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate and cocoa powder products purchased at retail stores in Japan, using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The Cd concentrations in these chocolate and cocoa powder products ranged from 0.00021 to 2.3 mg/kg and from 0.015 to 1.8 mg/kg, respectively. A weak positive correlation was found between the Cd concentration and the content of cocoa solids stated on the product labels. A comparison between these results and the maximum levels (MLs) set by the European Union revealed that the Cd concentrations in chocolate and cocoa powder products on the Japanese market exceeded the MLs for eight of the 180 chocolate products and 26 of the 140 cocoa powder products.
巧克力和可可由可可树（Theobroma cacao）生产的可可豆制成。这些产品可能含有镉（Cd），其来源于受污染的土壤。在此，我们使用电感耦合等离子体质谱法，对在日本零售店购买的黑巧克力、牛奶巧克力、白巧克力和可可粉产品中的镉浓度进行了调查。这些巧克力和可可粉产品中的镉浓度分别在0.00021至2.3毫克/千克和0.015至1.8毫克/千克之间。在镉浓度与产品标签上标明的可可固体含量之间发现了微弱的正相关。将这些结果与欧盟设定的最高限量（MLs）进行比较后发现，日本市场上的巧克力和可可粉产品中，180种巧克力产品中有8种以及140种可可粉产品中有26种的镉浓度超过了最高限量。
