Original Research ArticleOccurrence of cadmium, lead, mercury, and arsenic in prepared meals in Italy: Potential relevance for intake assessment

•Dietary exposure to As, Cd, Pb and Hg of the Italian population was assessed.•Estimated intakes were comparable than the values recommended by EFSA and FAO/WHO.•As and Cd values from almost all canteens were found close to the Total Daily Intake.

Arsenic (As), Cadmium (Cd), Lead (Pb) and Mercury (Hg) were analyzed in different prepared meals. Baby food composite and school canteen lunches collected on a five-days basis were selected as potential surrogates of the diet of 9-12 months toddlers and of 4-9 years children, respectively. Five-days servings from an office canteen, three fast food meals, seven-days lunches from a hotel-school and duplicate 1-day portions including a vegetarian meal were surrogates of the diet of 18-64 year adults. Occurrence data of pooled servings were determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer including a Dynamic Reaction Cell (ICP-MS-DRC). From such surrogated diets, estimated intakes felt in the range for As (0.28-6.91 μg kg−1 body weight (b.w.) day−1), Cd (0.09-0.96 μg kg−1 b.w. day−1), Pb (0.14-1.50 μg kg−1 b.w. day−1) and Hg (0.03-0.40 μg kg−1 b.w. day−1). For Cd, the intake from almost all surrogate diets considered resulted close to the Total Daily Intake (TDI) suggested by EFSA (0.36 μg kg−1 b.w. day−1).