Background: The sodium chloride has long been an essential part of the human diet. Sodium chloride is widely used in the food industry as a flavoring, preserving, and moistening agent, and consumed directly by humans. One of the causes of food contamination by metals is the use of additives during the production of salt. Lead, Cadmium, Mercury and Arsenic are the most important heavy metals which may cause the serious health risks following the consumption of contaminated foods.

Materials and Methods: Forty refined and prepacked salt samples were purchased directly from the shops around the city of khoramabad. The Mercury and Arsenic levels in salt were determined by hydride generation atomic absorption spectrophotometery, and Cadmium and Lead levels by graphite atomic absorption spectrophotometery model Perkin Elmer.

Results: The mean concentrations for the tested tracer metals including Cd, Pb, Hg and As were 0.032, 0.52, 0.025 and 0.098 μg/g, respectively.

Conclusion: The concentrations of tested heavy metals were well below the maximum levels set by Codex.