Toxic food: commercial bear meat products are highly contaminated with lead (Pb) from hunting ammunition

Abstract

We assessed lead (Pb) contamination from ammunition in 59 consumer packages of hunted brown bear (Ursus arctos) vacuum-packed or canned meat products from six manufacturers in Sweden, Finland and Estonia. Medical X-ray imaging showed that 15 (34%) of 44 vacuum-packed samples contained 1–3 radiodense objects ≥ 0.1 mm assumed to be Pb fragments. Four of these samples underwent synchrotron X-ray imaging and all radiodense objects observed in the medical X-ray images were confirmed to be Pb. In one sample, eight additional Pb fragments were detected by synchrotron X-ray imaging. Inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry carried out on 39 vacuum-packed and 15 canned samples showed that 32 (59%) of these contained > 100 µg Pb/kg wet weight, which is the maximum level (ML) for meat from domestic animals in the European Union (EU). All canned bear meat samples were above the ML. The Pb concentrations were highly variable, both between and within products. In 6 of 8 product types, the mean Pb concentrations were 1.2–28.2 times higher than the ML. The Pb isotopic compositions (208Pb/206Pb vs. 207Pb/206Pb) were similar to those of Pb-based rifle hunting bullets from European manufacturers. We conclude that several types of commercial brown bear meat products on the market in Sweden, Finland and Estonia were highly contaminated with Pb from spent ammunition. Although no ML of Pb has been set for game meat in the EU, we strongly advise against consumption of bear meat products exceeding the ML for meat from domestic animals.