The Distribution of Selected Toxic Elements in Sauced Chicken during Their Feeding, Processing, and Storage Stages

Sauced chicken is popular food worldwide. However, the elemental pollution of poultry industrialization has led to an increasing health risk concern. In this study, four typical toxic elements, including chromium (Cr), arsenic (As), lead (Pb), and cadmium (Cd), were selected and detected in whole industry chains of sauced chicken preparation by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. The detection method was optimized and verified with an average recovery of 93.96% to 107.0%. Cr has the highest proportion among the elements during the three stages, while the content of Cd was the least. In the feeding stages, elements were at the highest level in the starter broiler, and the grower broiler was considered to have a good metabolic capacity of them. In addition, the elements were mainly distributed in the chicken kidney, gizzard, liver, leg, wing, and lung. In the processing stage, the elements continued to accumulate from the scalding to the sterilization process. The elements were mainly distributed in the chicken wing, leg, head, and breast. In the storage stage, the elements almost kept constant in the polyamide and polyethylene packaging, while it showed irregular small-range fluctuations in the other two packages. This study provides beneficial references for the toxic element risk management in the whole industry chain.