Determination and health risk assessment of heavy metals in imported rice bran oil in Iran

In this current study, the contents of heavy metals including Pb, As, Cr, Cd, Zn, Cu, and Mn in imported rice bran oil in Iran were investigated with microwave digestion method based on an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry system (ICP-OES). The concentrations range of Pb, Cr, Cd, As, Zn, and Cu in rice bran oil samples were measured as 0.066-0.30, 0.008-0.014, 0.005-0.01, 0.047-0.01, 0.025-0.74 and 0.01-0.096 mu g/g, respectively. A significant difference (p-value < 0.05) in the mean concentration of Pb in imported rice bran oils samples was observed. The sum of incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) for heavy metals for children and adults were 2.6 x 10(-4) and 2.4 x 10(-5), respectively, which an acceptable level proposed values (10(-4)-10(-6)) by U.S. EPA. Moreover, the target hazard quotients (THQs) of As, Pb, Cr, Cd, Cu, and Zn for children were limited to between 1.17 x 10(-5) and 9.49 x 10(-9), and in adults were limited to 2.33 x 10(-7) and 6.82 x 10(-7), which were lower than the acceptable limit (THQ < 1). There have been concerns regarding heavy metals since past up to now in all foodstuffs. We demonstrated in this study that there are traceable concentrations of heavy metals in six brand of rice bran oils.