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The analysis and probabilistic health risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in cereal products

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Abstract

The analysis and probabilistic health risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in cereal products were done by using magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) method and gas chromatography/mass spectrometric (GC/MS). The results of method showed LOQ and LOD of PAHs compounds were 0.105–0.180 and 0.035–0.060 µg/kg, and the recorded values were 4.3–12.1 and 6.1–20.3% for repeatability and reproducibility with an estimated recovery of 94.4–103.4%. In this study, we analyzed kind of bread (Barbari, Sangak, Baguette, Taftoon, Lavash), macaroni, lasagna, and cooked rice that mean of total PAHs were 98.2, 121.7, 134.9, 166.3, 176.3, 176.2, 130.1, and 248.3 μg/kg, respectively. Further, the correlation between the type and amount of 16 PAHs with cereal products samples evaluated with multivariate principal component analysis and heat map visualization. The highest incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) was found in cooked rice (7.80E-6), while the lowest ILCR was found in Lasagna (2.35E-07). In conclusion, the PAHs content in the tested products were in low health risk ranges (1 × 10−6 < ILCR < 1 × 10−4), and all of the cereal products sold in Tehran are considered safe for consumers. Therefore, cereal products should be regularly evaluated and monitored by regulatory agencies to reduce contaminants in these high-consumption products.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by the Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Fariba Khalili, Nabi Shariatifar, Mohammad Hadi Dehghani, Kamyar Yaghmaeian & Ramin Nabizadeh Nodehi

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mehdi Yaseri

  3. Food Safety Research Center (Salt), Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran

    Majid Arabameri

Authors
  1. Fariba Khalili
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  2. Nabi Shariatifar
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  3. Mohammad Hadi Dehghani
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  4. Kamyar Yaghmaeian
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  5. Ramin Nabizadeh Nodehi
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  6. Mehdi Yaseri
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Contributions

Nabi Shariatifar: Conceptualization, Supervision; Design of study; Writing, reviewing and editing. Mohammad Hadi Dehghani: Design of study; Writing, reviewing and editing. Ramin Nabizadeh: Data curation; writing, reviewing and editing. Majd Arabameri: Visualization, Investigation, Software, Methodology, Software, Validation. Fariba Khalili: Methodology. Software, Validation. Maryam Moazzen: Data curation; Writing, original draft preparation. Kamyar Yaghmaeian: Design of study; Writing, reviewing and editing. Mehdi Yaseri: Software, Methodology.

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Correspondence to Nabi Shariatifar.

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This study does not involve any human or animal testing, or this study was approved by the Tehran University of Medical Science.

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Khalili, F., Shariatifar, N., Dehghani, M.H. et al. The analysis and probabilistic health risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in cereal products. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 31099–31109 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17337-1

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