Health risk assessment of heavy metals content in cocoa and chocolate products sold in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The study was carried out to assess the level of 10 heavy metals in 27 representative samples of cocoa and chocolate products sold in Saudi Arabia markets using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS). The mean levels of heavy metals were in the range of 0.033–0.123; 0.001–0.080; 0.010–0.046; 0.013–0.070; 0.61–9.74; 0.27–3.17; 0.02–0.67; 1.11–14.22; 0.18–0.66; and 11.38–72.12 µg/g for Pb, Cd, As, Hg, Cu, Ni, Co, Mn, Cr, and Al, respectively. These values were used to determine the estimated daily intake (EDI), target hazard quotient (THQ), hazard index (HI), and target cancer risk (TCR) associated with dietary exposure to these potentially toxic elements. The EDI values did account for 0.027–0.077; 0.002–0.032; 0.014–0.023; 0.013–0.069; 0.85–5.92; 0.27–1.85; 0.018–0.069; 1.37–8.68; 0.164–0.290; and 10.80–40.75 µg/kg/d for Pb, Cd, As, Hg, Cu, Ni, Co, Mn, Cr, and Al, respectively. They were below the tolerable intake limits in all foodstuffs analyzed, except in cocoa product where Al exceeded the permissible limit. The THQ and HI values were also lower than the safe standard 1 for all foodstuffs analyzed, except for cocoa products where the HI value was 1.909. This high value of HI indicates that consumption of more amounts of cocoa products frequently may result in adverse non-carcinogenic health effect in consumers in future. The THQ of cobalt in cocoa products was 0.806 which enhanced the GTHQ to be 1.196 and thus cobalt contributing 34.08% to the HI explaining that the risk was mainly contributed by cobalt. The TCR values did not exceed the limit, except for Ni in cocoa products which exceed the limit for acceptable risk of developing cancer indicating some concern.