Arsenic in Cooked Seafood Products:  Study on the Effect of Cooking on Total and Inorganic Arsenic Contents

Total and inorganic arsenic contents were analyzed in cooked seafood products consumed in Spain during the period July 1997−June 1998: hake, meagrim, small hake, anchovy, Atlantic horse mackerel, sardine, bivalves, crustaceans, squid, and salted cod. Various cooking treatments were used (grilling, roasting, baking, stewing, boiling, steaming, and microwaving). The results obtained were compared statistically with those found previously in the same products raw, and they showed that after cooking there was a significant increase in the concentration of total arsenic for salted cod and bivalves, and in the concentration of inorganic arsenic for bivalves and squid. The mean content of inorganic arsenic was significantly higher in bivalves than in any other type of seafood. For the Spanish population, the mean intake of total arsenic estimated on the basis of the results obtained in this study is 245 μg/day. The intake of inorganic arsenic (2.3 μg/day) represents 1.7% of the World Health Organization provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI), leaving an ample safety margin for this population, which has a very high consumption of seafood. Keywords: Arsenic; inorganic arsenic; seafood; cooking; hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry