Search

As a nutritious food, eggs are capable of accumulating heavy metals and are a good indicator of environmental contamination. This study is aimed at determining the levels of heavy metal residues (As, Cd, Hg, and Pb) in hen eggs after applying different cooking methods. In an experimentally designed study, forty-four hen egg samples were selected from 22 best-selling brands of supermarkets in Tehran and categorized into one of four groups (raw, dry-frying, and boiling with and without eggshells). The levels of heavy metal residues were analyzed by using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The average levels of heavy metals (As, Cd, Hg, and Pb) in raw samples were 0.307, 1.654, 0.121, and 6.5 (μg.kg-1), respectively. After applying cooking methods, the residue of two heavy metals in boiling without eggshells (As: 0.228 ± 0.197 ; Cd: 1.985 ± 0.037) was lower than boiling with eggshells (As: 0.457 ± 0.918 ; Cd: 2.11 ± 0.223 μg.kg-1), while the dry-frying method had the lowest level of heavy metal residue (As: 0.222 ± 0.109 ; Cd: 1.54 ± 0.223) (p < 0.05) and could be identified as efficient in reducing the amount of these heavy metals. In addition, different cooking methods did not make a significant difference in other heavy metal residues (Hg and Pb). To explain this reduction, two hypotheses can be proposed to explain the reduction of heavy metals after applying different cooking methods. First, the eggshell is permeable; the second is the association of heavy metals bonding with sulfur groups and weight loss due to evaporation. All heavy metal residues were found to be within acceptable permissible thresholds. Therefore, policymakers should protect the health of the population by continuously monitoring heavy metals in foods and prioritizing education and research on how to reduce them in the food chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficacy of different refining stages on physicochemical parameters, heavy metal, and mineral contents of sesame oil were investigated. The sesame oil from different refining stages (crude oil, neutralization, bleaching, deodorization, and refining stages) was taken from the local oil factory in Yazd, Iran. The fatty acid composition of oil samples was determined by GC-FID. The oxidation indexes including peroxide value, p-Anisidine, free fatty acid, TOTOX, total polar material, as well as antioxidant activity (FRAP and DPPH), and total phenolic content were measured. The mineral and heavy metal content of oil samples were analyzed by ICP-OES. Linoleic acid (41.1-42.4%), oleic acid (41-41.4%), palmitic acid (8.3-9.1%), and stearic acid (6.1-6.3%) were reported as the most dominant fatty acids in all oil samples. The results illustrated that the refining process had no significant effects on fatty acid composition except for slight changes in palmitic acid. It was shown that all oxidation indexes, antioxidant activity, total phenolic content and mineral, and heavy metals were decreased during oil refining. The highest decrease in oxidative indexes was reported in the deodorization stage. The total phenolic content, DPPH, and FRAP ranged from 4.79 to 56.56 mg GAE/100 g, 6852.64 to 867.89 mg/ml, and 54.74 to 127.4 mM FeSO4.7H2O in RSO and CSO, respectively, which the highest decrease was shown during the neutralizing stage. The order of metals in RSO was shown as P>Ca>K>Fe>Mg>Al>Cr>Pb>Ni>Cd>Cu>Co. Although all metals were decreased by the refining process, the Pb concentration (0.16 mg/kg) of RSO was evaluated as higher than the permissible limit. Considering that the refining process effectively reduces undesirable compounds, the consumption of crude sesame oil is not recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, physicochemical characteristics, mineral and polyphenolic composition, and anti‐inflammatory and antimicrobial effects of wild cornelian cherry fruits from two regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina were determined. Values of flesh weight and fruit:flesh ratio were higher for samples from the western region. Samples from the southern region had significantly higher (p ≤.05) dry matter, total sugar and pectin content, as well as color parameters L* and a*, whereas samples from the western region had significantly higher (p ≤.05) total acidity. Significant content of potassium, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus were determined in all samples. A higher content of flavonols was found in the samples of cornelian cherries from the southern region, whereas a higher content of flavan‐3‐ols and anthocyanins was found in the samples from the western region. All cornelian cherry fruit samples showed anti‐inflammatory and antimicrobial activity. Polyphenolic components had significant (p ≤.05) antimicrobial activity against Bacillus cereus and Escherichia coli cultures. Novelty impact statement: The wild cornelian cherries are widespread in the territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but so far, it has not been fully explored, and the results presented in this paper provide new findings. The ethanolic extract of all tested cornelian cherry samples had a significant amount of essential macrominerals, whereas heavy metal cadmium was not found and lead was found only in traces. All ethanolic extracts exhibited high antimicrobial and anti‐inflammatory activity, and the content of flavonols, flavan‐3‐ols, and anthocyanins was found to depend on the growth region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, an electronic tongue (e‐tongue) system based on cyclic voltammetry (CV) with three electrodes (pencil graphite (PG), screen printed (SP), and glassy carbon (GC)) was fabricated to investigate and detect heavy metals, such as cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), tin (Sn), and nickel (Ni) (at three concentrations of 0.05, 0.1, and 0.25 ppm) in sunflower edible oil. The results from cyclic voltammograms showed that GC, PG, and SP electrodes have the highest cathodic current peaks and show higher sensitivity to the presence of heavy metals in sunflower edible oil, respectively. Moreover, the principal component analysis method was used to classify heavy metals. The obtained results showed that the three intended electrodes were capable of well detecting data. Overall, PG, SP, and GC electrodes account for 84%, 98%, and 88% of the variance between data, respectively. Additionally, a support vector machine (SVM) and K‐nearest neighbor (K‐NN) were used for classification. High accuracies were obtained for the PG, SP, and GC electrodes. Besides, The K‐NN method combined with the intended electrodes could well perform classification, and GC was the best electrode. In the following, the partial least square method could predict data for PG, SP, and GC electrodes with an accuracy of 98%, 99%, and 81%, respectively. Finally, it can be said that the fabricated e‐tongue combined with chemometric methods could classify heavy metals, in edible oil with high accuracy. Practical applications: In this research, an e‐tongue system was developed based on three electrodes (PG, SP, and GC) to identify heavy metals in sunflower edible oil using chemometric methods. According to results, e‐tongue combined with chemometric method has high ability for food quality monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]