Determination of the chromium content of Hungarian winter wheat

Bread and different winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) products are the main sources of chromium in the human diet in Hungary. Graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF-AAS) is able to give reliable results for Cr. In this study the chromium content of some winter wheat species was determined after wet digestion. Contamination was the most critical part of chromium measurement; thus, appropriate sample preparation and the cleaning of kernels before digestion were required. The chromium content was 2-3 times higher than expected when contamination occurred. Samples came from a field plot experiment and, therefore, the effect of fertilization (150 kg/ha N, 112.5 kg/ha P(2)O(5), and 132.5 kg/ha K(2)O) on chromium content of grains was studied. The average measured values of different species were 114+/-3 and 134+/-4 microg/kg for the control and fertilized plots, respectively.