Cadmium levels in peanut products

Samples of peanut products such as peanut butter, raw, roasted and crushed peanuts from various commercial producers and obtained from local markets in Brisbane contained generally low levels of cadmium with mean values ranging from 0.013 to 0.031 mg/kg. These values were lower than the maximum permitted concentration for cadmium in peanuts in Australia, which is currently set at 0.05 mg/kg. Pre-digestion of samples using a microwave digestion system was found to be very effective in reducing digestion time prior to dry ashing for the analysis of cadmium.