Zinc, aluminium, tin and Bis-phenol a in canned tuna fish commercialized in Lebanon and its human health risk assessment

Lara Al Ghoul; Mohamad G Abiad; Adla Jammoul; Joseph Matta; Nada El Darra

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04995

Zinc, aluminium, tin and Bis-phenol a in canned tuna fish commercialized in Lebanon and its human health risk assessment

Heliyon. 2020 Sep 23;6(9):e04995. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04995. eCollection 2020 Sep.

Authors

Lara Al Ghoul¹, Mohamad G Abiad^{2

3}, Adla Jammoul⁴, Joseph Matta^{5

6}, Nada El Darra¹

Affiliations

¹ Beirut Arab University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Tarik El Jedidah, Beirut, P.O.Box: 115020, Riad EL Solh, 1107 2809, Lebanon.
² Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, American University of Beirut, P. O. Box 11-0236, Beirut, 1107-2020, Lebanon.
³ Laboratories for the Environment, Agriculture, and Food (LEAF), Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, American University of Beirut, P. O. Box 11-0236, Beirut, 1107-2020, Lebanon.
⁴ Food Department, Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute, Fanar, P.O. Box 2611, Beirut, 1107 2809, Lebanon.
⁵ Industrial Research Institute, Lebanese University Campus, Beirut, Lebanon.
⁶ Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Pharmacy, Saint Joseph University, Beirut, Lebanon.

Abstract

One of the drawbacks of canning is the migration of various chemicals from the package into the food product. This work aimed at analyzing the concentrations of Bisphenol A (in 137 samples) and heavy metals (in 51 samples) of canned tuna commercialized in Lebanon while evaluating the variability across different brands, packing media, layer, and proximity to the expiry date. Accordingly, BPA was detected in 12 samples out of the 137 samples, run in duplicates. The estimated daily intake of BPA for the selected samples (n = 274) was lower than the tolerable daily intake of BPA, 0.004 mg/kg/day. Therefore, there is no health risk associated with BPA as a result of consuming canned tuna commercialized in the Lebanese market. Besides, the study has shown that 66 samples out of 102 were contaminated with Zn whereas 100% of the samples were contaminated with Aluminum and Tin. However, the calculated Health Risk Index of all the considered heavy metals are all within the safe limits as defined by EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) and Codex Alimentarius.

Keywords: Canned tuna; Food safety; Food science; Health risk; Heavy metals; Lebanese market.