Food Intake of Macro and Trace Elements from Different Fresh Vegetables Taken from Timisoara Market, Romania-Chemometric Analysis of the Results

Gabriel Heghedűș-Mîndru; Petru Negrea; Teodor Ioan Trașcă; Ducu Sandu Ștef; Ileana Cocan; Ramona Cristina Heghedűș-Mîndru

doi:10.3390/foods12040749

Food Intake of Macro and Trace Elements from Different Fresh Vegetables Taken from Timisoara Market, Romania-Chemometric Analysis of the Results

Foods. 2023 Feb 8;12(4):749. doi: 10.3390/foods12040749.

Authors

Gabriel Heghedűș-Mîndru¹, Petru Negrea², Teodor Ioan Trașcă¹, Ducu Sandu Ștef¹, Ileana Cocan¹, Ramona Cristina Heghedűș-Mîndru¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Food Engineering, University of Life Science "King Mihai I" from Timisoara, 300645 Timisoara, Romania.
² Faculty of Industrial Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Polytechnic University of Timisoara, Piata Victoriei, RO, 300006 Timisoara, Romania.

Abstract

Vegetable consumption is recommended and encouraged by all nutritionists and doctors across the planet. However, in addition to minerals which are beneficial to the body, certain minerals with a negative influence on human health can sneak in. It is very important that in the case of some minerals their content in vegetables is known, so that the recommended limits are not exceeded. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the macro elements (Na, K, Ca, Mg) and trace elements (Cu, Mn, Fe, Cd, Pb, Zn, Co) in 24 samples of vegetables from four botanical families (Solanaceae, Brassicaceae, Apiaceae and Amaryllidaceae), purchased from the market in Timișoara, Romania, both imported products as well as local products. The atomic-absorption-spectrometry technique (FAAS) was used to evaluate the macro elements and trace elements. The values obtained for the macro elements and trace elements were used as input data for the analysis of multivariate data, the principal component analysis (PCA) in which the vegetable samples were grouped according to their contribution of certain mineral elements, as well as according to some of the botanical families to which they belong. At the same time, based on the values obtained for trace elements, an assessment of the risk to human health in terms of consumption of the vegetables studied was carried out. The risk assessment for human health was determined on the basis of the estimated daily dose (EDI), the values of the target hazard coefficient (THQ), the values of the total target hazard coefficient (TTHQ) and the carcinogenic risk (CR). Following the determination of THQ, the values obtained followed the order THQ_With > THQ_Cd > THQ_Pb > THQ_Co > THQ_Mn > THQ_Zn > THQ_Fe. The results on the content of macro elements and trace elements, as well as the assessment of the risk to human health when consuming the assessed vegetables, were within the limits of European Union (EU) and World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization (WHO/FAO)legislation.

Keywords: assessment of the risk to human health; macro elements; principal components analyzed; trace elements; vegetables.

Grants and funding

This research paper is supported by the project “Increasing the impact of excellence in research on the capacity for innovation and technology transfer within USAMVB Timisoara”, project code 6PFE, submitted in the competition Program 1—Development of the national system of research-development, Subprogram 1.2—Institutional performance, Institutional development projects—Development projects of excellence in R.D.I.