I would want to use something like this: https://perkinelmer.cl/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/PinAAcle-900-LeadCadmium-in-Food-by-GFAA.pdf https://perkinelmer.cl/

I would want to use something like this: https://perkinelmer.cl/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/PinAAcle-900-LeadCadmium-in-Food-by-GFAA.pdf https://perkinelmer.cl/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/PinAAcle-9... >Determination of Lead and Cadmium in Foods by Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy There are newer, more sensitive, more expensive, and more versatile spectrometers, but one of these would do nicely. It's good to have a technique and and instrument sensitive enough to measure something like drinking water directly, using a small sample, and on our unit fairly automated with the optional accessories, once you had the samples prepared and carefully racked. More costly is the facility capable of properly handling & disposing of the chemicals necessary to accomplish the analysis, along with instrument support equipment like calibrated glassware and balances for precision mass and volume measurement, plus appropriate sample processing (in this case a microwave sample processor). So you can't just put the instrument in your garage and get going realistically. Where would you start? Somewhere other than the spectrometer, basically the instrument itself would be the final icing on the cake. The first step has got to be preparing the samples or you can't make it to step two. Regardless of what type of spectrometer, or even a trace level chemical test kit, what they are really built to test is plain water samples, not applesauce or even more unwaterlike foods. So you need a sample preparation procedure that aggressively "digests" a small amount of food into a watery mixture using a bit of acid, then further dilute it with water afterward so the viscosity is closer to plain water too. And that's the liquid that you test using a spectrometer sensitive enough to do a good job, in spite of dilution (in the linked PDF 0.3 gram of food sample diluted up to 20mL of spectrometer feed). Making that one PDF paragraph on Sample Preparation a proven starting point. You would have to get really good at that before it would make much sense to go much further. OTOH, there's this: https://ideacenter.nd.edu/commercialization-engine/for-industry/available-technologies/device-method-for-detecting-lead-in-water/ https://ideacenter.nd.edu/commercialization-engine/for-indus... Which doesn't depend on as sensitive of a spectrometer, instead reliant on a full 2 Liter sample of the water or waterlike fluid you want to test. IOW you might be able to digest 2 kilos of applesauce, using only a fraction of a liter of acid if you were willing to forget about having it come out in 40 minutes, then concentrate the mineral content efficiently into a small bed of activated carbon by filtration like this. Then end up measuring the lead accurately using the less-sensitive x-ray spectrometer which is available in hand-held format. For the most part without the need for an analytical bench, just a sample preparation bench.