Toxic Metals in Wild Ungulates and Domestic Meat Animals Slaughtered for Food Purposes: A Systemic Review

The presence of toxic metals in harvested game meat is a cause for concern for public health and meat safety in general. Authorities and food safety agencies continue to develop guidelines and limits of the maximum allowable levels of toxic metals in food products. However, the situation is differen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inFoods Vol. 10; no. 11; p. 2853
Main Authors Nkosi, Davies Veli, Bekker, Johan Leon, Hoffman, Louwrens Christian
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 18.11.2021
MDPI
Subjects
Agricultural management
Animal production
Animals
Arsenic
Bioaccumulation
Cadmium
Developing countries
Farming
Food contamination
Food contamination & poisoning
Food safety
Food science
Games
Harvest
Heavy metals
Hunting
Industrialized nations
LDCs
Lead
Meat
Meat industry
Meat products
Mercury
Proteins
Public health
Review
Safety
Slaughter
toxic metal
Ungulates
Australia
United States > US
Africa
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Summary:The presence of toxic metals in harvested game meat is a cause for concern for public health and meat safety in general. Authorities and food safety agencies continue to develop guidelines and limits of the maximum allowable levels of toxic metals in food products. However, the situation is different for game meat products in developing countries, where a number of shortcomings have been identified. This includes a lack of game meat animal slaughter regulations, specific species’ product limits that have not yet been established and the continued use of hunting or game meat animals’ harvesting plans that could introduce the same toxic metals of concern. This review was conducted from English literature published between 2011 and 2021; it highlights the possible health effects and the shortcomings in the implementation of game meat safety production strategies for toxic metals (Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium and Mercury) in game meat animal production. Lead (Pb) remains the most significant threat for toxic metals contamination in game meat animals and the slaughter processes. In most developing countries, including in South Africa, the monitoring and control of these heavy metals in the game meat value chain has not yet been implemented.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:2304-8158
2304-8158
DOI:10.3390/foods10112853