Clinical Pharmacist and Master’s student in Clinical Pharmacy with research interests in pharmacovigilance, behavioral interventions in mental health, and AI applications in clinical decision support. Experience includes digital health research with Bloomsbury Health (London) and pharmacovigilance practice in patient support programs. Published work covers drug awareness among healthcare providers, postpartum depression management, and patient safety reporting. 
Clinical Pharmacist and Master’s student in Clinical Pharmacy with research interests in pharmacovigilance, behavioral interventions in mental health, and AI applications in clinical decision support. Experience includes digital health research with Bloomsbury Health (London) and pharmacovigilance practice in patient support programs. Published work covers drug awareness among healthcare providers, postpartum depression management, and patient safety reporting. What was studied
The study chromium-content-in-plant-foods measured total chromium levels in commonly consumed plant foods and beverages to support more reliable dietary exposure estimates and improve analytical practice for low-level metals in complex food matrices. Researchers quantified chromium in fresh fruits, vegetables, and wheat grain collected from three agricultural regions of Poland (2001 harvest), and also in market-purchased beverages (juices, wines, beers). The work emphasized contamination control and method validation because chromium can be easily biased upward by sample handling and inadequate background correction. Chromium was determined using electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry with Zeeman background correction (ZETAAS) after microwave digestion for solids, while liquids were acidified/diluted without digestion. For HMTC-style certification, the study is most valuable as a “how-to” for credible trace metal measurement (matrix modifiers, detection limits, QA/QC) and as a baseline distribution of chromium in plant commodities and beverages that can inform realistic specification ranges and outlier investigations.
Who was studied
No human participants were studied. The “subjects” were 272 total samples of foods and beverages of plant origin: 224 fresh plant samples (strawberries, apples, cucumbers, cabbages, carrots, potatoes, wheat grains) collected from commercial plantations in three Polish provinces, plus 30 market products including juices/beverages and alcoholic drinks (wines and beers, with some imported European products). Edible portions were prepared as consumed (washed, peeled when needed), homogenized, and analyzed in replicate; solids underwent closed-vessel microwave digestion with nitric acid, while beers were degassed and liquids were acidified/diluted. Importantly for certification programs like HMTC, the paper treats sampling region and brand-to-brand variability as real sources of dispersion rather than noise, reporting ranges, medians, and relative standard deviations that help distinguish typical variation from red-flag anomalies that might suggest contamination, processing inputs, or packaging contact.
Most important findings
Across chromium-content-in-plant-foods, chromium was generally low but highly variable by commodity, region, and even brand; values ranged from <1 to 183 µg kg in foods, while juices were typically <1 l, and wines beers clustered the low-teens single digits (µg l), respectively. < p>Critical point Details Wide overall range with low typical levels Chromium in analyzed foods spanned <1 to 183 µg kg, indicating mostly trace presence but occasional high-end values that could affect compliance screens if limits are set too tightly without distribution context. < td> Highest mean chromium in specific commodities Mean chromium was highest in wheat grains (~39 µg/kg), strawberries (~32 µg/kg), and cucumbers (~19 µg/kg), suggesting commodity-specific baselines useful for setting product-category expectations in HMTC audits. Beverages showed low chromium, with juices often non-detect Juices/beverages were generally <1 µg l, while wines averaged ~12 l and beers ~7 implying that processing formulation can strongly depress (or standardize) chromium compared with raw commodities. < td> High variability within categories signals contamination/processing sensitivity Relative standard deviations were large for several foods (e.g., apples and cucumbers reported very high dispersion), and the paper notes large differences even within the same brand category, reinforcing the need for batch-based certification rather than single-sample assurance. Regional differences matter for risk stratification Chromium differed by province for key staples (e.g., wheat and strawberries), supporting HMTC-style supplier qualification that considers growing region and upstream environmental conditions as risk modifiers. Method reliability hinges on QA/QC and modern background correction The validated ZETAAS approach used certified reference material and recovery studies, with stated detection limits around ~1 µg/kg (or µg/L) for typical sample sizes—practical benchmarks for certification labs defining reporting limits and uncertainty.
Key implications
For chromium-content-in-plant-foods, the regulatory impact is mainly methodological: HMTC-aligned decisions should rely on validated trace-metal methods with strong contamination control, defined detection limits, and routine CRM/recovery checks; certification requirements should include commodity-specific expected ranges, batch-level sampling plans, and clear rules for handling nondetects and high-end outliers; industry applications include supplier risk ranking by region, process/packaging review for unexpected spikes, and standardized beverage testing where dilution effects dominate; research gaps include chromium speciation (Cr(III) vs Cr(VI)) and processing-source attribution; practical recommendations are to pair raw-ingredient surveillance with finished-product verification and to require labs to document background correction, modifiers, and QA acceptance criteria.
Citation
Ręczajska W, Jędrzejczak R, Szteke B. Determination of chromium content of food and beverages of plant origin. Pol J Food Nutr Sci. 2005;14/55(2):183-188.
Chromium (Cr) is a widely used metal with significant public health implications, especially in its toxic hexavalent form. The HMTC program’s stricter regulations ensure that chromium exposure is minimized, safeguarding consumer health, particularly for vulnerable populations.
