Detection of Metal and Metalloid Contaminants in Foods and Their Potential Health Risk

Dear Colleagues,

Aims and Scope

The presence of metals and metalloids in foods remains a major concern in food safety, environmental health, and public policy. Elements such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and aluminum, as well as emerging elements of concern (e.g., antimony, thallium, vanadium, and rare earth elements), can enter the food chain through natural processes, agricultural inputs, industrial emissions, and food processing or packaging.

The development of advanced analytical techniques, particularly ICP-MS, ICP-MS/MS, and hyphenated multi-elemental approaches (e.g., LC-ICP-MS and GC-ICP-MS), has enabled more accurate and sensitive determination of trace metals and metalloids in complex food matrices. Combined with innovations in sample preparation (microwave digestion, solid-phase extraction, green, and miniaturized methods), these advances have greatly improved the reliability of contaminant detection and risk evaluation.

This Special Issue aims to present recent analytical, toxicological, and epidemiological insights into metal and metalloid contamination in foods, integrating chemical data with exposure assessment and health risk evaluation. Studies that combine advanced mass spectrometry, speciation analysis, bioaccessibility testing, or dietary exposure modeling are highly encouraged.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Determination of metals and metalloids in foods using ICP-MS, ICP-MS/MS, and other advanced spectrometric techniques;
• Speciation analysis (Hg, As, Se, Sn, etc.) and their implications for toxicity and bioavailability;
• Innovations in sample preparation, including green, automated, and miniaturized approaches;
• Multi-elemental and metallomic profiling of food products and ingredients;
• Occurrence and distribution of metals and metalloids in foods from different regions and supply chains;
• Bioaccessibility, bioavailability, and metabolism of food-borne metals and metalloids;
• Human exposure assessment and dietary intake estimation;
• Health risk assessment (non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks, mixture toxicity);
• Monitoring of vulnerable populations and nutritional-metal interactions;
• Regulatory perspectives and risk management strategies for metal contaminants in food.

This Special Issue seeks to bring together analytical chemists, toxicologists, nutritionists, and risk assessors to promote a comprehensive understanding of the occurrence, exposure pathways, and health consequences of metal and metalloid contamination in foods.

Prof. Dr. Fernando Barbosa Júnior
Prof. Dr. Milena Horvat
Prof. Dr. Marília Cristina Oliveira Souza
Prof. Dr. Jose L. Domingo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• metal/metalloid contaminants
• advanced spectrometry, ICP-MS/MS
• speciation & bioaccessibility
• exposure & dietary intake assessment
• health risk assessment