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Introduction: The demand and consumption of vegetables are significantly increasing worldwide, which has resulted in urban farming on anthropogenic sites. This study assessed the concentrations of some selected heavy metals in lettuce and spring onion in line with the WHO/FAO required standard and its implications on human health. Methods: The study was carried out in Kumasi, within moist semi-deciduous forest vegetation, Ghana. The digested samples were analyzed for heavy metals (Cu, Cr, Fe, Mg, Ni, and Zn) using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS Model AA 400p). Analysis of variance was used to test the level of significance at α = .05. Results: The study found mean concentrations of chromium and iron in lettuce and spring onion to be below detection level (BDL) in all study sites based on WHO/FAO permissible level. Also, while copper in lettuce was BDL at all the sites, there were higher mean concentration of copper in spring onion at BSGS (131.5 ± 0.31 mg/kg) and BSG (120.8 ± 0.01 mg/kg). The mean concentration of nickel in lettuce (137.15 ± 0.0231) and spring onion (173.55 ± 0.02 mg/kg) at BSGS were higher than WHO/FAO permissible level. Mean concentration of zinc in both lettuce and spring onion were higher than WHO/FAO permissible level in all the study sites, except zinc in spring onion at KT. The ANOVA test statistics showed no significant difference among the concentrations of heavy metals in all sites, except zinc in lettuce and nickel in spring onion. The study found cancer risk factor for nickel, which exceeded the benchmark of 1 × 10 −6 for both lettuce and spring onion, indicating that long-term consumption could increase the risk of cancer in consumers. Conclusion: The study’s findings call for strict regulation and regular monitoring of heavy metals in vegetables cultivated at anthropogenic sites in urban areas to ensure food safety and consumer health.

The ever-increasing demand for wildlife-derived raw or processed meat commonly known as bushmeat, has been identified as one of the critical factors driving the emergence of infectious diseases. This study focused on examining the bacterial community composition of smoked and fermented bushmeats, specifically grasscutter, rat, rabbit, and mona monkey. The analysis involved exploring 16Sr RNA amplicon sequences isolated from bushmeat using QIIME2. Microbiome profiles and their correlation with proximate components (PLS regression) were computed in STAMP and XLSTAT, respectively. Results indicate the predominance of Firmicutes (70.9%), Actinobacteria (18.58%), and Proteobacteria (9.12%) in bushmeat samples at the phylum level. Staphylococcus, Arthrobacter, Macrococcus , and Proteus constituted the core microbiomes in bushmeat samples, ranked in descending order. Notably, significant differences were observed between the bacterial communities of bushmeat obtained from omnivores and herbivores (rat and mona monkey, and grasscutter and mona monkey), as well as those with similar feeding habits (rat and monkey, and grasscutter and rabbit) at the family and genus levels. Each type of bushmeat possessed unique microbial diversity, with some proximate components such as fat in rat samples correlating with Staphylococcus , while proteins in Mona monkey correlated with Arthrobacter and Brevibacterium , respectively. The study underscores public health concerns and highlights probiotic benefits, as bushmeat samples contained both pathogenic and beneficial bacteria. Therefore, future research efforts could focus on improving bushmeat quality.