English Abstract The calcium and magnesium content has been determined
of 61 meat samples, 17 samples of minced meat, 13 dressed meat products and
18 sausages ; total number of samples: N=109. Sampling has been spread
geographically over the Netherlands as wide as practical and was preferably
focussed at local butchering and/or production of sausages. Quality
assurance for both elements was by analysis of the standard reference
materials "Animal muscle" and "Horse kidney" of IAEA in Vienna, "Bovine
liver" of NIST in Washington D.C. and "Pork muscle" of BCR in Brussels.
All samples were, at least, assayed for both elements in duplicate to face
the risk that inhomogeneity affects the results. On average the calcium
content is 0.10 g/kg ; levels over this mean were found in only 21% of the
products. The calcium levels range from 0.03 up to 1.99 g/kg with a
median value of 0.06 g/kg and 0.60 g/kg for the highest but one value.
The average magnesium content of meat and meat products (N=109) is 0.22
g/kg ; range 0.09-0.34 g/kg. Apart from chicken meat, the products hardly
differ in magnesium content. Highest magnesium levels were found in chicken
meat which contains on average 0.31 g/kg. The contents of calcium and
magnesium found in the products assayed agree well with those found for
similar products in the literature studied.
