Assessment of Heavy Metals in Fruits and Vegetables Collected from Bareilly Local Market, Uttar Pradesh State, India

Abstract

Abstract: Heavy metals are among the contaminating agents of our food supply, and the main source of metals or the media through which living beings get exposed to various toxic metals is food and water. The concentration of heavy metals in plants is essential for good health and growth of human and animals but should be within permissible limits. Various natural and anthropogenic factors are responsible for excess metal concentration in crops. Dietary heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, arsenic, mercury can be harmful to biota as their excessive accumulation in human body can lead to systematic health problems. Fruits and vegetables are main component in diet after cereals. Hence the present study aimed to determine Aluminium (Al), Arsenic (As), Cadmium (Cd), Lead (Pb) and Mercury (Hg) content in mostly consumed vegetables (onion, potato, taro root, spinach, taro root leaves, beans, jackfruit and pumpkin) and fruits (blackberry, mango and pears) during summers in Bareilly City, Uttar Pradesh. These food samples were collected from local vendors and shops from four different market sites of the city. The samples were analysed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer and the obtained results were compared with safe limits set by different national and international agencies. Based on the data we conclude that concentrations (mg/kg dry weight) of As, Pb and Hg for all samples and Al and Cd for most of the food stuffs were found exceeding the allowable limits causing potential health risk to consumers of present study area. Elevated levels of these metals in food stuffs might be due to various factors such as usage of industrial and disposal waste water for irrigation, municipal and urban runoff, fertilizers, pesticides, that contaminates the soil and hence crops absorb those metals. Some cultivation areas get exposed to atmospheric pollution found near highways, in form of metal containing aerosols. Other factors can be exposure to pollution during transportation and marketing. The prolonged consumption of unsafe concentration of metals is an alarming public health concerns, considering that metals can accumulate in organism and show negative effects by causing various disruptions of numerous biochemical processes and therefore leading to acute and chronic health outcomes. Such foodstuffs should be avoided in the diet and a regular monitoring is required to avoid the health risk among humans. Keywords: heavy metal, contamination, concentration, food sample, human, toxicity