Mercury content in beetroot and beetroot-based dietary supplements

Total mercury (THg) concentrations in fifty-four beetroot-based DSs and seven lots of conventional and organic beetroots (divided into unpeeled, peeled, and skins) were determined by direct thermal decomposition-gold amalgamation cold vapour atomic absorption spectrometry. The analytical procedure was optimised and vali-dated. The recovery (%) for Hg was 101.9 and 92.73 in BCR-463 and DOLT 4, respectively. The intermediate precision value (4.7%) exceeded the repeatability value, which was as expected. The estimated LOD and LOQ values of the analytical procedure used were 0.096 and 0.29 [ng], respectively, and were converted to corre-sponding MDL and MQL values, which were 0.96 and 2.9 [ng/g], respectively. The highest contents of THg were found in conventional (28.03 ng/100 g w.w.) and organic (56.2 ng/100 g w.w.) beetroot or powder supplements (0.65 ng/g). Statistical analysis confirmed the differentiation of the analysed group of products at the level of significance 0.05 and 0.001. There were found statistically significant relationships in terms of: dietary supplement-beetroot (p < 0.001), beetroot-part of vegetable (p < 0.05) and dietary supplement-pharmaceutical form (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the analysed DSs did not pose a significant risk for a consumer in terms of permissible contamination limit, Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake realisation, and the Target Hazard Quotient.