Investigation of Waste Recycling Contamination from Poultry Slaughterhouses to Lead and Cadmium in Shiraz

Today, food safety is one of the most important issues in the world, and food contamination with heavy metals is considered a serious risk for the quality and safety of human and livestock food. Heavy metals are not biodegradable, so they can enter the food chain and contribute to the development of kidney, nervous, and bone diseases as well as cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate the amount of lead and cadmium contamination of waste recycling from poultry slaughterhouses in Shiraz city.

For this purpose, 30 samples were collected from 6 poultry slaughterhouses in Shiraz. Acidic digestion of the samples was performed according to AOAC method. Then, the concentration of lead and cadmium was measured according to the furnace atomic absorption spectrometry method. SPSS software was used for statistical processing of the results.

The results showed that according to the Iranian national standard and international standards (Codex), the average concentration of lead (1.15 mg/kg) and cadmium (cadmium <0.25 mg/kg) in the samples of all 6 poultry slaughterhouses in Shiraz city are within the natural range, and none of the studied samples exceeded the limitation.

Considering the harmful effects of heavy metals on animal and human health, continuous monitoring of contamination with these metals in animal waste and animal and poultry feed is recommended.