Determination of metal(oids) in different traditional flat breads distributed in Isfahan city, Iran: Health risk assessment study by latin hypercube sampling

This survey was conducted to assess the metal(oids) content in 93 samples of bread, including barbari, lavash, and tafton, using inductive couple plasma/optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) method and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). The amounts of measured element were compared with the permissible limit set for bread by FAO/WHO and Iranian National Standardization Organization (INSO). The limit of detection (LOD) was ranged from 6.6 × 10(–5) to 2.1 × 10(–2) mg l(−1) with recoveries ranged from 92% to 102%. The average concentrations of aluminum (Al), arsenic (As), boron (B), cadmium (Cd), iron (Fe), mercury (Hg), magnesium (Mg), sodium (Na), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) in bread were 29.88 ± 8, 0.03 ± 0.004, 12.77 ± 3.70, 0.01 ± 0.006, 34.16 ± 8.95, 0.01 ± 0.008, 346.07 ± 36.08, 3314.81 ± 317.19, 0.24 ± 0.11, and 19.65 ± 4.66 mg Kg(−1), respectively. Amounts of As, Cd, Hg, Mg, Pb, and Zn were lower, and those of Al, Fe, and Na were higher than the permissible limits defined by FAO/WHO. The Latin Hyper Cube (LHC) sampling results revealed that children were exposed to higher non-carcinogenic risk and adults were more threatened by carcinogenic risk. It is recommended to control the entrance of metals in bread in the farm-to-fork chain in order to prevent probable future health challenges.