Lead in pet foods and processed organ meats. A human problem?

L. Hankin, G. H. Heichel and R. A. Botsford

The finding that canned pet foods contain considerable amounts of lead is important, since it had been alleged that some of these products are used for human consumption. The lead content of canned dog and cat food ranged from 0.9 to 7 ppm, and ingestion of 170 gm (6 oz) could provide up to 0.95 mg of this toxic element. The lead probably comes from organ meats used in the manufacture of pet foods. The lead content of liverwurst ranged from 1.6 to 7.6 ppm.