Evaluation of heavy metal contaminants in prepared noodles: source allocation and health risk assessment.

In recent years, special attention has been given to emission research that led to the deposition of toxicants from road traffic. Thus, it is imperative to focus on heavy metal (HM) stressors in food items, their source contribution, and health risk assessment providing insight into their spatial role at the population level. In this study, heavy metal in the street vended noodles was studied while correlating the quality of noodle with different environmental origins. The samples were prepared using acid digestion and analysed by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer, except Hg which was analysed by direct mercury analyser. The results showed that some heavy metals like Cr, Pb, Mn, Cd, and Hg exceed their permissible limits established by the international legislation for food products. In the noodle samples, the concentration of heavy metal ranged from < 0.1 to 0.904 mg/kg for Pb, < 0.09 to 0.843 mg/kg for Ni, < 0.004 to 0.201 mg/kg for Cd, < 0.0001 to 0.004 mg/kg for Hg, < 0.01 to 1.388 mg/kg for Cu, < 0.015 to 8.049 mg/kg for Mn, and < 0.02 to 16.514 mg/kg for Cr. Noodle samples vended on high traffic density streets are directly associated with increased HM content due to atmospheric deposition from the surrounding. Source apportionment study determines that HM contamination belongs to the same source of origin, except Cr. Based on the cluster analysis, these samples fall into three major groups that were further validated by the canonical discriminant function. Health risk prediction by Monte Carlo simulation revealed an elevated non-carcinogenic health hazard risk to consumers with a hazard index (HI) shift from 71 to 75%. Health hazard analysis showed that consumers of high traffic density street vended food are at higher risk of developing health-related issues. This study is important to evaluate the health risk of the population exposed to heavy metals due to ingestion of street vended food.