Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals Via the Consumption of Spaghetti

It has long been recognized that the intake of foods contaminated with chemicals, especially heavy metals can give rise to acute intoxications. The toxic properties of heavy metals are due to their long biological half-lives, as well as non-biodegradable and persistent composition. Considering the importance of the cereal products in the human diet, the present investigation was carried out to assess the human health risk of residue levels of Al, Cr, Pb, and Zn in the domestic and imported spaghetti.

In this descriptive study, 18 samples of Iranian and imported spaghetti were collected from the market in Kermanshah City, Iran, in 2015. After the preparation and processing of the samples in the laboratory, the concentration of metals was determined using the inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy. Then, statistical analyses were performed in SPSS (version 19) by running the Shapiro-Wilk test, one-way ANOVA (Duncan multiple range test), Independent t-test , and Pearson correlation coefficient.

The results showed that the mean concentrations of Al, Cr, Pb, and Zn in Iranian spaghetti samples were 655.56±400.35, 211.11±92.80, 2666.67±948.68, and 588.89±116.67 µg/kg, respectively and in the imported spaghetti samples, these values were 2022.22±1940.86, 677.78±393.0, 3300.0±728.0, and 866.67±685.57 µg/kg, respectively. Moreover, Health Risk Index (HRI) values in adults and children via consumption of Iranian and imported spaghetti were within the safe limits (HRI <1).

Considering the serious contamination of some samples of Iranian and imported spaghetti by Al and Pb, the control of heavy metals content during the whole production processing of spaghetti is suggested.