This study was conducted to investigate the contamination level of some heavy metals for common restaurant meals in Seoul area and further to estimate the total dietary intake of heavy metals from the meals. The samples included seolong-tang (beef and rice soup) or galbi-tang (beef-rib soup), yeukkye-jang (spicy beef soup), doenjang-chigye-bab (boiled rice with soy paste stew), bibim-bab (boiled rice with assorted mixtures), and bibim-naengmyon (buckwheat vermicelli with assorted mixtures), which were separated into drained residues and fluids and determined for their heavy metal contents by atomic absorption spectrophotometry.
The average concentrations of heavy metals in drained residues and fluids of 105 meal samples were 0.034 ppm, 0.017 ppm in Cd, 0.179 ppm, 0.073 ppm in Pb, 0.491 ppm, 0.308 ppm in Cu and 4.624 ppm, 1.403 ppm in Zn, respectively. The total amount of heavy metals per meal was 28 ㎍ Cd, 145 ㎍ Pb, 416 ㎍ Cu and 3654 ㎍ Zn. The total dietary intake per day was estimated to give 84 ㎍ Cd, 434 ㎍ Pb, 1247㎍g Cu and 10960 ㎍ Zn. Intake levels of Cd and Pb were higher than the daily intake limit established by FAO/WHO.
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