ABSTRACT
Formaldehyde (FA) and hexamethylenetetramine, which slowly decomposes to FA under acidic conditions, are antimicrobial additives used during the production of certain cheeses. To determine whether foods can leach nickel from stainless steel pots during cooking, three acidic foods, rhubarb, spinach, and sauerkraut, were cooked in several types of stainless steel pots manufactured by 4 different companies. Platinum concentrations in a variety of Australian foods were found to range from 0.13 μµg/kg in whole milk to 8.11 μg/kg in liver. Results of radioactivity measurements made in 1990 on foods collected in regions of Russia, Byelorussia, and the Ukraine, heavily contaminated by the Chernobyl accident, were reported and used to estimate safety of the foods. Mass spectrometric methods used for identification and confirmation of trace level residues of contaminants in foods were evaluated with respect to criteria desirable in a regulatory sample case.
