Investigation of cat dog foods produced in Türkiye presence of heavy metals

The aim of this study was to determine the trace elements and toxic elements in fish and fish-free cat and dog foods produced in Türkiye and to compare them with the highest limits recommended in regulations and guidelines. In addition, it is also aimed to examine the effect of the fish and fish-free status of the food on the presence of minerals and toxic elements needed by the animal. The scope of the research consists of commercial dry cat and dog foods produced in Türkiye, which are available for sale on internet sales sites in September 2023, and which can be grouped as fishy or fishless in terms of their content. Our study has a 95% confidence interval. For this, the expected frequency percentage (p) in the population was calculated as 5±6% and a total of 62 foods (28 with fish and 34 fish-free) from 13 different brands were analyzed. Our study has limitations in terms of time, origin, type and price. The levels of nineteen elements in fish and fish-free foods were measured using Inductively Coupled Plasma- Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The foods were also grouped as standard-premium; cat food-dog food; lamb-beef chicken-rice and statistical comparisons were made between the groups. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 21 software. Cobalt (Co), mercury (Hg) and arsenic (As) levels were below the instrument measurement limits. Pb was not detected in premium foods. In this study, the elements above the recommended maximum limits were chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), selenium (Se) in fish foods and manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), aluminum (Al) and Pb (lower than US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maximum tolerable limit (MTL) but higher than European Council (EC) MTL) in fish-free food. There is a significant difference between the groups for Mn, Al and Ni in fish and non-fish foods (p<0.04). There was a significant difference between the groups for magnesium (Mg), Mn and strontium (Sr) in standard-premium foods (p<0.02). There is a significant difference between the groups for Cu and Sr in cat-dog foods (p≤0.04). The fact that the levels of elements such as Fe, Cu, Zn, Se and toxic elements such as Al and Pb in foods exceeded the recommended maximum limits is recommended to be examined in more detail and to use devices with a more sensitive measurement range in further studies. In further studies, it is recommended to conduct exposure assessment for cat and dog by modeling specific age and physiological conditions, and health risk assessment by determining the target hazard coefficient and total target hazard coefficient.