Metals migration between product and metallic package in canned meat

- Determined the level of accumulation of heavy metals in meat cans.
- Determined the variation of heavy metals migration during storage.
- The modeling of metals migration in the product packages has been made.

The aim of this study is to investigate the migration of heavy metals in meat can under different parameters (varnish, storage time, storage temperature, storage humidity and varnish width and porosity). The physicochemical and organoleptic properties of the meat can have been analyzed. The metal content (Cd, Pb, Cu, Fe, Zn and Sn) were determined by flame and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry after microwave digestion. The organoleptic and physicochemical properties of the samples have not modified significantly during the experiments. The metals migration is not influenced significantly by the varnish type. The highest level of metals in food products was observed at 4 and 50 °C. The porosity influenced significantly (p < 0.05) the migration of metals while the varnish width influence is not a significant one. The migration modeling using 3rd grade polynomial model achieved models with high coefficients of regression (greater than 0.9858).