Heavy Metal Content of Selected Some Turkish Beers

Abstract

In this study, concentration of Cr, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Sn and Pb heavy metals present in 23 different beers produced by the largest beer maker company of Turkey is determined using the electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) technique. Results were compared by considering can-bottle, low alcohol containing- high alcohol containing and dark-light beers. Comparison has been made on results with the help of the t test. It is concluded that only Cr concentration of can beers is higher than that in bottle packaging. All the results are below the permissible values. Average values for 23 beers are 50.9 for Cr, 82.4 for Fe, 57.5 for Ni, 82.5 for Cu, 425 for Zn, 3.70 for Cd and 12.5 μg/L for Pb. Standard addition technique has been used with arbitrary beer samples for accuracy of the method and recovery values are found between 92% and 104%.

Keywords: Beer, alcoholic beverage, heavy metal determination, ETAAS, metal contamination