author(s)
R Jayanthi, V Appa Rao, R Narendra Babu, T Sivakumar, P Sriram and Robinson JJ Abraham

abstract
A study was carried out to analyse the essential heavy metals viz. cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, nickel and zinc in commercially available Ready-To-Eat chicken meat products (chicken 65, chilly chicken, grilled chicken and tandoori chicken) collected from street food outlets at different regions of Chennai city. Totally 288 samples were collected and analysed using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). Results revealed that, among the three regions southern region had higher concentration of cobalt (4.19±6.35 ppm), copper (2.20±0.31 ppm), manganese (2.34±0.37 ppm) and nickel (8.09±2.42 ppm) whereas higher concentrations of iron (12.86±2.02 ppm) and zinc (10.42±1.56 ppm) were noticed in central region. Among the products grilled chicken samples had higher concentrations of zinc (10.42±1.56 ppm) and nickel (8.09±2.42 ppm). Based on the results it was concluded that, heavy metals like copper, iron and zinc in ready-to-eat chicken meat products were within the limits of standard whereas cobalt, manganese, and nickel were slightly higher than the permissible limits set by different regulatory agencies for meat. The reason for these higher values may be due to the ingredients, cooking methods and cooking utensils used for the preparation of the chicken meat products and also the extraneous contaminants.