Determination of cadmiumin the cocoa (Theobroma cacao) almondcrop of five farms on the road Santo Domingo - Esmeraldas, by atomic absorptionspectrophotometry with graphite furnace

in this study, the concentration of cadmium in the cacao (Theobroma cacao)beans was determined from five farms located along the santo domingo–Es-meraldas highway, in santo domingo de los tsáchilas. a total of 50 sampleswere analyzed in this study; the samples were taken from 10 sampling pointsin each of the five farms. the instrumental technique used in this study was ato-mic absorption combined with a graphite furnace. cocoa almonds pods weredried, calcined, and exposed to acid digestion, in order to analyze cadmiumthrough atomic absorption with the graphite furnace equipment. the results ofthis study show that the average cadmium content in the cocoa beans of allsamples is 0.35 mg/kg. this indicates that the cadmium concentration is sixtimes above the allowed, which is 0.05 mg/kg (atsdr, 2008). however, in thefirst 4 samples form the # 1 farm, the cadmium concentration was below thepermissible limit. from the results obtained, it is deducted that the cocoa podsthat are being harvested in these farms could not be exported, since they donot meet the requirements regarding the maximum permitted cadmium in thecocoa beans.