ABSTRACT
Chicken meat and hen egg are very popular foodstuffs around the world and highly consumed as curry, fast food, processed food, etc. assuming a promising source of protein. In the present study, the concentrations of Pb, Cd, Cr, As, Hg, Mn, Fe, and Zn in nationally representative samples of chicken meat and hen egg were determined and found in the range of 0.03-2.73, 0.01-0.015, 0.025-0.67, 0.04-0.06, 0.01-0.015, 0.15-0.63, 2.50-38.6, and 1.02-19.4 mg/kg-fw, respectively. The results demonstrated that only Pb exceeded the maximum allowable concentration (MAC) for dietary food. Multivariate statistical analyses depicted that anthropogenic activities were the major source of heavy metals in the investigated foodstuffs. Human health risks associated with the dietary intake of these metals through the consumption of chicken meat and hen egg were evaluated in terms of estimated daily intake (EDI), non-carcinogenic risk of individual heavy metal by target hazard quotient (THQ), total target hazard quotient (TTHQ) for combined metals, and carcinogenic risk (CR) for lifetime exposure. The calculated values of EDI, THQ, TTHQ, and CR were below their respective permissible benchmarks indicating the safe consumption of the investigated foodstuffs with respect to heavy metal contamination.
