US EPA

1385997 

Technical Report 

Heavy metals, particularly nickel, contained in cacao beans and chocolate 

Kohiyama, M; Kanematsu, H; Niiya, I 

1992 

BIOSIS/92/29833 

39 

7 

596-600 

jpn 

BIOSIS COPYRIGHT: BIOL ABS. The contents of nickel and other heavy metals in cacao beans and its processed products was studied. For the study, 26 samples of cacao beans, 14 of cacao mass (bitter chocolate), 10 of cacao butter, 14 of commercially available chocolate (black, 9; white, 5) and 4 of powdered cocao were collected. (1) On the average, the content of nickel was about 5 ppm in both cacao beans and cacao mass, while only 0.03 ppm in cacao butter. The contents of iron and copper were also observed little differences between cacao beans ( x: 82.5 ppm Fe, 26.7 ppm Cu), while markedly low in cacao butter ( x: 0.30 ppm Fe, 0.04 ppm Cu). (2) Nickel was detected 1.09 ppm on average in the black type of the chocolate, while only 0.14 ppm or less in the white type. Powdered cocoa contained 12.7 ppm of nickel on average, much higher than the content in cacao mass. Such tendency was also observed in the cases of iron and copper: black type, white type of chocolate and powdered cocao contained, on av 

Methods; Comparative Biochemistry; Biochemical Methods-Minerals; Biochemical Studies-General; Biochemical Studies-Minerals; Food Technology-General; Food Technology-Malts; Food Technology-Fats and Oils; Food Technology-Sugar; Food Technology-Evaluations of Physical and Chemical Properties (1970- ); Food Technology-Preparation; Toxicology-Foods