Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Brazilian vegetables and fruits

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) occur as contaminants in different types of food predominantly from environmental pollution, food packaging and food processing and the levels found depend on the source of the contamination. PAHs emissions from automobile traffic and industry activities were shown to influence the PAHs levels and profiles in vegetables and fruits grown nearby. The present study was carried out to determine the levels of PAHs in samples of lettuce, tomato, cabbage, apple, grape and pear, and use these data to further estimate the dietary exposure of Brazilians to PAHs. Samples of each fruit and vegetable were collected in six different places and analysed for ten PAHs. The analytical method involved saponification with methanolic KOH, liquid–liquid extraction with cyclohexane, clean-up on silica gel column and determination by high performance liquid chromatography using fluorescence detection. The mean levels of total PAHs were 13.53 μg/kg in lettuce, 9.50 μg/kg in tomato, 8.86 μg/kg in cabbage, 4.05 μg/kg in apple, 3.77 μg/kg in grape and 3.87 μg/kg in pear. Of the carcinogenic PAHs, benzo(a)anthracene was the most representative, being found in 89% of all samples analysed. Chrysene was not detected in any sample.