The evaluation of copper contamination of food cooked in copper pans using a piezoelectric quartz crystal resonator

Copper is an essential element but toxic to humans at high levels. Careful control of copper uptake is important for patients suffering from copper metabolic disorders. A copper sensor based on a coated piezoelectric quartz crystal was used to follow copper contamination of food cooked in copper pans. Results showed that neutral liquids, like water, do not experience any noticeable contamination, but that acidic elements, like tomato, showed to extract as much as 17.5 μg of copper per gram, from the pan where they were cooked for 1 h. Results obtained with the new piezoelectric copper sensor are not statistically significant different (α = 0.05), both in terms of accuracy and precision, from the ones obtained by atomic absorption spectrometry.