Ncube, NTancu, YolandaMketo, N2025-02-262025-02-262024-070889-15751096-0481https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfca.2024.106201http://hdl.handle.net/10204/14083Microwave-assisted hydrogen peroxide digestion (MW-AHPD) method for determination of Cd, As, Pb, Sn, and Cr in South African pet food samples by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopic (ICP-OES) is reported. Multivariate tools and wheat flour certified reference material (FAP80467) assessed limiting factors and reproducibility of the methods respectively. The resulted optimum conditions were: 200 ◦ and 5 mol/L for temperature, time, sample mass and H 2 O 2 C, 40 mins, 0.5 g, concentration, respectively. The method demonstrated excellent accuracy (96–98%), reproducibility (≤ 2.1%) and high detection limits (0.0675–0.3765 µg/g). Then, real pet food samples made from maize, rice, vegetables, fish, and wheat were digested and concentration levels of Cd, Pb, As, Cr and Sn ranged between 11.2 and 22.6, 6.4–11.9, 3.44–13.4, 0.44–2.98 and 0.18–0.98 µg/ g, respectively. The three metal ions were above the minimum tolerable limits (Cd: 10 µg/g, Pb:10 µg/g, As: 12.5 µg/g) for some of the fish and wheat.FulltextenPet foodMicrowave assisted hydrogen peroxideDigestionHeavy metal ionsICP-OESMultivariate optimizationStandard limitsArticle28214