Heavy metal analysis of selected soft drinks in Nigeria

There have been reports of the presence of heavy metals at a concentration above the limit specified by the World Health Organization (WHO) for food and drink products in Nigeria. This work was designed to compare the levels of zinc, copper, lead, cadmium, iron and arsenic in selected Nigerian soft drinks with the specified recommended limits by the World Health Organization. These heavy metals in selected Nigerian soft drinks were estimated by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy after digestion of soft drinks with nitric acid. The results obtained showed that 30% of the selected drinks conformed to WHO specifications for the heavy metals analyzed while the remaining 70% had heavy metal contents which exceeded the maximum limits specified by WHO