Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in commercial edible oils and health risk assessment in Malaysia: article

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is a group of hazardous organic substance, which also categorized as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) has widely distributed in the atmosphere that able to trigger the environment and human health. In this study, the concentration of PAHs in three different commercial edible oils and brands were evaluated. The liquid-liquid extraction and solid-phase extraction were used for clean-up before being examined by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a fluorescence detector. The results showed the sunflower oil contained the highest PAH amount among 27 edible oil samples with the mean value of 4.28 µg/kg. The mean concentrations of the extra virgin olive oil, olive oil, and sunflower oil for benzo(a)pyrene were below 2 µg/kg and complied with the European Union standard. There was no significant difference for PAH concentrations in a different types of edible oils except chrysene as well as in different brands of edible oils. The estimation of health risk assessment for PAHs was carried out using the incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR). The calculation revealed the ILCR value were less than 1.0 × 10⁻⁶ for all the children and both male and female adults. These values pointed out a low potential risk of carcinogenic to the populations exposed through consumption. The implementation and maintenance of regular monitoring from time to time on the concentration of PAHs in edible oils is necessary due to the lower probability of risk of cancer in order to increase food security.