Heavy metals assessment and sensory evaluation of street vended foods

In this study, the level of lead and cadmium present on the most often consumed street vended foods available around the University of Santo Tomas, España, Manila, as well as the effect of exposure to environment on the amount of these heavy metals on street vended foods were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS) after dry ashing (AOAC No. 999.11). The sensory characteristics of a selected street vended food were also evaluated on a time-dependent manner to determine effect of exposure to environment on the panellists’ degree of liking using the 7-Point Hedonic Scale. Results of the study shows that the lead content in deep-fried breaded quail eggs (kwek-kwek) and steamed dumpling (siomai) were 0.23 to 0.28 μg/g and 0.53 μg/g, respectively. While the level of lead and cadmium in grilled chicken’s small intestine (isaw) ranges between 0.54 to 2.1 μg/g for lead and 0.14 to 0.24 μg/g for cadmium. There was no significant difference among samples of grilled isaw in terms of appearance, aroma and general acceptability. This means that a consumer would not be able to detect newly grilled chicken’s small intestine from those grilled that were already exposed to environment for a period of time. Moreover, a consumer can be at a higher risk in consuming grilled chicken’s small intestine that was exposed to the environment for a given period of time as this would have higher amount of lead and cadmium, than chicken’s small intestine consumed immediately right after grilling.