Abstract
Cooking food in polyethylene bags has of late substituted banana leaves in Uganda. However, such a practice is risky as chemical contaminants may migrate from polyethylene bags into food during cooking causing health complications. Therefore, this study was done to identify and quantify the levels of chemical contaminants (heavy metals) in black and green polyethylene bags. Polyethylene bags were ashed and digested with acid and heavy metal concentrations determined using an AAS. Samples analyzed contained heavy metals with concentrations ranging between; 1125 - 1725, 76 - 112, 35 - 52, 18 - 31 ppm for Pb, Cd, Cr and Co respectively. Heavy metal migration studies into posho cooked in the black polyethylene bags was done at 65°C (T), 80°C (T) and 95°C (T). The highest migrated heavy metal concentrations 120.60, 12.25, 9.45 and 15.42 ppm for Pb, Cd, Cr and Co respectively were obtained at T3 at the surface of the posho cube (0.5cm) after 5 hours of heating. While the lowest values for Pb (10.60 ppm), Cd (1.26 ppm), Cr (0.20 ppm) and Co (1.55 ppm) were obtained at T1 towards the centroid of the posho cube (1.5 cm) after 2 hours of heating. Pb migrated highest followed by Co, Cr and Cd. Though small quantities migrated, over a long period of time they may accumulate in the body and cause health complications to the victims. To make this research of substantial importance to the polyethylene bag user, the findings were disseminated through media to the general public.
Highlights
Food has been traditionally cooked and kept warm by wrapping it in banana leaves across many communities in Uganda
Due to climatic changes coupled with changing life style among urban people, food vendors, and some households, wrapping of food in colored low density polyethylene bags during cooking is on the rise
Both green and black polyethylene bag samples were analyzed for heavy metals
Summary
Food has been traditionally cooked and kept warm by wrapping it in banana leaves across many communities in Uganda. Despite all the advantages of polyethylene bags, a number of studies have suggested that polyethylene materials contain a wide range of potential chemical migrants like residual monomers, low-molecularweight polymers (oligomers) and additives (plasticizers, stabilizers, slip agents, block agents, colourants, fillers, lubricants etc.) that can migrate into food during cooking. These additives are added during production of polyethylene bags to achieve specific properties [3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
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