Extraction of heavy metals by cooking/preserving of seafood, tuna and poultry from Romania – A source of contamination with heavy metals

The study aims to provide evidence regarding the impact of the extraction of heavy metals into food products through conventional cooking and preserving of foods like seafood, tuna, and poultry. The optical emission spectrometric technique with an inductively coupled plasma source (ICP-OES) was employed to determine trace levels of heavy metals in the muscle tissue of seafood, fish meat, tuna species, poultry, and turkey that was collected raw, cooked, frozen, and preserved. Conventional cooking increased the concentration of some heavy metals (Al, Sn, Fe, Co, Ti, and Mn) by more than 100.00%, while preserving the mussels promoted the extraction and accumulation of metals such as Al, Fe, Sn, Zn, Cu, Hg, and As, resulting in an increase in concentration of more than 180.00%.