A health risk assessment of toxic metals and aflatoxin contamination in homemade and industrial noodles

Environmental pollution is a problem that affects food safety throughout the world. In this study, a health risk assessment of possible toxic metal and aflatoxin contamination in homemade and industrial noodles produced in Türkiye was carried out. Samples were taken from 67 kinds of homemade and five kinds of industrial noodles from different cities. Each sample was ground and prepared according to the inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) protocol. Chronic daily metal intake (CDI), target hazard quotient (THQ), hazard index (HI), and cancer risk (CR) calculations were made according to metal concentrations. Then, it was compared with the limit values of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). Furthermore, AFB₁ analyses were performed on all samples the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Using the obtained data, health risk assessments were made in the samples of homemade and industrial noodles. Pb (lead), Hg (mercury), Cd (cadmium), As (arsenic), Cr (chromium), Ni (nickel), Cu (copper), Al (aluminum), and Fe (iron) concentrations analyzed in all samples were used in THQ and HI (non-cancer health risk) calculations, and THQ < 1 and HI < 1 were found. On the other hand, 81% of all the samples were found to have cancer risk in terms of Ni and 75% Cr. The AFB₁ findings (mean, 0.29 ppb) were below the Turkish Food Codex limit (2.00 ppb). Consequently, it is questionable that the noodle samples have cancer potential in general.