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VOL. 70 (4), 961-999, 2004 VANADIUM - AN ELEMENT BOTH ESSENTIAL AND TOXIC

Vanadium Content of Foods and Beverages

Seeds, cereal products, bread, cake and pastries, tubers and fruits
generally have a low vanadium content (5 to 40 µg/kg dry matter).
Mushrooms, red radish, leafy vegetables (lettuce, spinach) as well as
herbs contain much higher levels of vanadium (100-2,400 µg V/kg
dry matter (Table 12).

TABLE 12. Vanadium contents of foods and beverages (µg/kg dry matter,
µg/L beverage) (147 different foods and beverages; n 2090)

Plant foods (range) Animal foods (range) Beverages

Bread, cake (6-23) 13 Formula milk (3-17) 9.1 Drinking water 0.43

Flours, pulses (1-77) 14 Dairy products (2-31) 9.3 Whisky, brandy 0.48

Sugar-rich foods (8-31) 17 Meat, sausage (10-95) 31 Coke, lemonade 0.83

Fruits (9-55) 23 Breast milk 34 Advocaat, juice 6.2

Vegetables (7-625) 41 Fish, tinned fish (16-92) 36 Beer 28

Spices (16-2356) 218 Eggs 75 Wine, sparkling wine 45

The investigation of European vegetable foodstuffs based on con-
ventional and organic farming showed that, as a rule, organically
produced wheat flour, bread, fruits and vegetables delivered less
vanadium than conventionally produced ones. The missing of phos-
phate fertilization which delivers vanadium to the plants becomes
noticeable in organic farming production. In contrast to this fact,
brown sugar produced ecologically from sugar cane contained more
vanadium than conventionally refined beet sugar. The use of this
sugar delivers much vanadium to the food chain. Therefore, ecolo-
gically produced chocolate and sweets are richer in vanadium than
conventionally produced brands (15).

The various formulae for the nutrition of babies offer between 4
and 17 µg V/kg dry matter. Like cow’s milk, most formulae in Ger-
many deliver < 10 µg V/kg dry matter. Mother’s milk contains 34 µg
V/kg dry matter, i.e., more than cow’s milk. The vanadium content
in human milk should be subjected to further investigation so that
baby food can be prepared according to physiological principles.

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