Abstract

Background: Today, the importance of food safety cannot be ignored in every community. Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd) and Arsenic (As) are mentioned among the samples of the most dangerous heavy metals and exceeding from concentration of maximum allowable concentrations (MAC) can have serious side effects as well as carcinogenic properties. Method: 210 samples of seven brands of internal and imported high consumption packed rice in Iran were selected each brand whereof consisted of 30 samples which were evaluated in terms of contamination with Pb, Cd and As. The evaluation was performed through graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry and atomic fluorescence spectrometry methods; afterwards, their concentrations were compared to MAC. Finally, their safety was calculated for the human health. Results and conclusion: The average concentrations of Pb, Cd and As in high consumption rice cultivated in or imported to Iran were 0.061, 0.03 and 0.06 mg/kg respectively. The results of this study showed that the weekly intake of these heavy metals in all rice brands was below provisional tolerable weekly intake. These findings suggest that all evaluated high consumption brands are below 1 in terms of health risk index and are safe for the human health in the present study.