A Follow-Up Study Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metal Leachability from Household Cookwares

Leaching of heavy metals from household cookware’s can be a public health concern. Therefore, in this present study, some selected heavy metals namely: iron (Fe), aluminum (Al), zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr) and nickel (Ni) were analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometery in beans and tomatoes sauce cooked in aluminum and cast-iron cookware’s commonly used in Nigeria.
These metals were also determined in uncooked tomatoes sauce, and beans used as controls. Results obtained indicated that, the lowest concentrations of most of the metals were recorded in uncooked food items exceptions were that of Pb,Ni (tomatoes sauce only) and Zn (tomatoes sauce and beans). It was also noticed from results recorded that, the highest mean concentration of Iron (Fe) (1068
mg/kg) was obtained in tomatoes sauce cooked in cast iron pot, Aluminum (Al) recorded its highest mean concentration (850 mg/kg) in tomatoes sauce cooked in aluminum pot. Chromium (Cr) recorded the highest mean concentration (9.4mg/kg) in tomatoes sauce cooked in aluminum pot. Lead (Pb), Zinc (Zn) and Nickel(Ni) recorded its highest mean concentrations (31 mg/Kg), (22.6 mg/kg) and (11.9
mg/Kg) respectively in uncooked tomatoes sauceResults obtained in this study further revealed that, cooking utensils can leach some quantities of trace metals into food during processing, hence resulting in slight increase in the concentration of some of these metals in processed foods. The general results showed that concentration levels of Lead (Pb), Nickel (Ni) and Zinc (Zn) obtained were within
their recommended safe limits whereas, concentrations levels of Aluminum (Al), Iron (Fe) and Chromium (Cr) were above their maximum acceptable levels.The study has also shown that tomatoes sauce and beans foodstuffs have high potentials of leaching these metals from cookwares possibly due to pH and contact time. These results were discussed based on their environmental and
health implications. The results show that the aluminum cookware poses a greater danger to public health when compared to cast iron cookware by approximately 1.7-folds through tomatoes sauce and 1.6-folds through beans.

Author(s): Muyiwa Ogidi, MKC Sridhar and AO Coker

Abstract | Full-Text | PDF

Share This Article