Soheil Sobhanardakani; Lobat Taghavi
Abstract
Background & Objective: Nowadays due to the environmental pollution, health risk of foodstuffs consumption especially citrus species as an integral part of human diet has become a serious challenge. Therefore, this study was carried out for analysis and health risk assessment of As and Zn in some ...
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Background & Objective: Nowadays due to the environmental pollution, health risk of foodstuffs consumption especially citrus species as an integral part of human diet has become a serious challenge. Therefore, this study was carried out for analysis and health risk assessment of As and Zn in some widely used citrus samples marketed in Hamedan city in 2015. Materials and Methods: In this analytical study, 48 samples of citrus species (orange, grapefruit, lemon and tangerine) were randomly collected from four wholesale centers of Hamedan city. After samples preparation using acid digestion method, the concentrations of elements in samples were determined using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP–OES) in three replications. the gained experimental results were analyzed by SPSS 20 software using Shapiro-Wilk Test, One Sample T Test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient. Results:The results showed that the maximum mean concentration (mg/kg) of As and Zn were 0.09±0.07, and 0.26±0.09 for grapefruit and lemon samples respectively. Also the computed health risk assessment showed that there is no potential risk for children and adult to consume the studied citrus. Conclusion: Although based on the obtained results, controlled consumption of studied citrus species has not adverse effect on the consumers’ health, due to the increased use of agricultural inputs especially phosphorus fertilizers, sewage sludge and wastewater by farmers and orchardists, regular periodic monitoring of chemical pollutants such as pesticides and other toxic metals (Hg, Pb, Cd and Cr) content are recommended for food safety especially in imported foodstuffs.