Development of an apple juice certified reference material for cadmium, lead, total arsenic and arsenic species

•An apple juice reference material was certified for its toxic element contents.•The homogeneity and stability of the material were investigated.•High accuracy techniques were used for the characterizations of all analytes.•This CRM will be useful for method validation or as a Quality Control material.

In the development of the apple juice certified reference material, isotope dilution mass spectrometry method was used for the assignment of certified values and long-term stability study for cadmium and lead. For total arsenic, inorganic arsenic, as well as dimethylarsenic acid, standard addition method was used. The analytes were found to be homogenous and stable over a period of at least 4.5 months at storage temperature of −20 °C (long-term stability). The certified mass fraction values were (0.220 ± 0.011) mg/kg for cadmium, (0.245 ± 0.014) mg/kg for lead, (0.185 ± 0.015) mg/kg for total arsenic, (0.124 ± 0.012) mg/kg for inorganic arsenic [As(III)+As(V)] and (0.0601 ± 0.0052) mg/kg for DMAA. The recovery of the arsenic species was over 99%. This apple juice certified reference material can be used for method validation or as a quality control material by routine testing laboratories.

Graphical abstractDownload high-res image (103KB)Download full-size image