Distribution and Size of Lead Shot Fragments in Small Game and their Impact on Food Safety

A paper published in the journal PLoS ONE by members of the SHOT-SWITCH team found that pheasants sold for human consumption contained many fragments of toxic lead derived from the lead shotgun pellets used to kill them. The fragments were too small for consumers to detect and too distant from the shot to be removed without throwing away a large proportion of otherwise useable meat. The researchers used a high-resolution CT (computerised tomography) scanner to locate the lead fragments in the pheasant meat in three dimensions and measure their size and weight. The CT scans revealed up to 10mg of tiny lead shards per pheasant, and an average of 39 per bird. Most were very small – less than 0.3mm in diameter.

Link to full paper here: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268089