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In recent years a significant increase in food supplements consumption has been observed, maybe in the belief that they couldn’t be dangerous for consumers health, even if they don’t achieved medical effects. However, environmental pollution can cause heavy metals contamination that could exceed maximum levels established by European legislation. Aim of this work was to evaluate arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead and mercury content in 12 food supplements seized in a Piedmont shop by the Italian authority against food adulteration. All metals were analysed after mineralization and dilution steps by ICP-MS, with the exception of mercury, detected by the direct analyser TDA-AAS. Only one sample exceed the European maximum limits for lead (3,00 mg/kg) but warning levels of chromium (over 3,00 mg/Kg) has been detected in three of them.

Directive 2003/126/EC defines the method for the determination of constituents of animal origin for official control of feedingstuffs. One of the hardest problems for microscopist is the differentiation between mammalian and poultry bones on the basis of some characteristics as colour and borders of the fragments, shape and density of osteocyte lacunae. The shape of osteocyte lacuna in poultry and mammals is often described in different way, elliptic or roundish according with the Author(s). The aim of this study was to analyze the characteristics of lacunae in chicken bones of different type. For this purpose, smashed fragments and histological sections of the same bone were compared in order to evaluate the microscopic aspect of lacunae in different breaking and trimming planes. According to the observations carried out, it was possible to infer that chicken osteocyte has a biconvex lens shape; however the different arrangement and some size variation of the osteocytes in the several bone segments influence the microscopic features of corresponding lacunae. Chicken bone is made of a parallel-fibered tissue, without osteons. This structure probably determines the plane fracture of the bone and consequently the different aspect of lacunae (from spindle-shaped to elliptic-roundish) we can see in chicken derived PAP (processed animal protein). For example, in the fragments obtained from smashed diaphysis, the prevalence of spindle-shaped lacunae is depending on the preferential breaking of the bone along longitudinal plane. Likewise, for the epiphysis, being made mostly by bone trabeculae with strange directions, the breaking happens along different planes, creating lacunae of various shape. Performing the official check of animal feedingstuffs, the presence of bone fragments with roundish or elliptic osteocyte lacunae induces the analyst to thinking that the meat and bone meal comes respectively from mammals and poultry or vice versa depending to the reference Author(s); apart from the final evaluation (also based on some other features of the fragments), it is important to consider that the chicken bones could show lacunae of different shapes (spindle, elliptic and roundish), in accordance with the type and the breaking of the involved skeleton segments.

Bird feathers have been proven to be reliable indicators of metal exposure originating from contaminated food and polluted environments. The concentrations of 15 essential and non-essential metals were investigated in African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) feathers from a Northwestern Italian zoological facility. These birds are exclusively fed with herring from the northeast Atlantic Ocean. Certain elements, such as Hg and Cd, reflected the bioaccumulation phenomena that occur through the marine food chain. The levels of Cr, Mn, and Ni were comparable to those registered in feathers of birds living in polluted areas. These results are important for comparative studies regarding the health, nutrition and welfare of endangered seabirds kept under human care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]