Health risks of toxic metals (Al, Fe and Pb) in two common street vended foods, fufu and fried-rice, in Kumasi, Ghana

The preparation practices, handling and raw materials for street food vending could be sources of toxic metals in street food vending business which is yet to be explored in-depth as microbial contamination. The concentrations and dietary risk of the toxic metals Al, Fe, and Pb were assessed in fufu and fried-rice, two commonly consumed street-vended foods in Ghana. The mean concentrations for Pb found to be between 3.30 and 11.25 mg kg−1 in the cooked foods, far exceeded the maximum tolerable daily intake of 0.3 mg kg−1 body weight per day for consumers. Al and Fe concentrations were between 3.04 and 18.49 mg kg−1 and 1.44 and 7.82 mg kg−1, respectively. Hazard index was less than 1 at the 5th percentile level of consumption, but greater than 1 at the 50th and 95th percentile level of consumption; indicating risk of metal toxicity with increasing probability as the level of consumption and HI increase. The patronage of street vended foods is unlikely to reduce. Hence vendors must be educated on safe preparation and handling processes such as the use of stainless steel utensils will likely reduce the levels of the toxic metals to acceptable levels. Keywords: Food contamination, Metal toxicity, Toxicology, Human health risk