Metals in honey, cow's milk and eggs in North-East Algeria and health risk

Metal contamination of foodstuffs is a major public health challenge of increasing concern. The present study aimed to determine lead, cadmium and mercury in honey, cow's milk and poultry eggs collected from the North-Eastern region of Algeria and to evaluate the health risks associated with their regular consumption. To this aim 30 samples of each foodstuff were analysed using ICP-MS. Among the quantified heavy metals, Pb was found at the highest level in both honey (0.752 ± 0.16 µg g^-1) and poultry egg (0.988 ± 0.19 µg g^-1) in the region of Skikda. The highest values of Cd (0.798 ± 0.12 µg g^-1) and Hg (0.097 ± 0.02 µg g^-1) were found in poultry eggs collected from the same region. For infants the Hazard Index was well above 1 in honey samples from all three locations, in cow's milk collected from Mila and Skikda and in poultry eggs collected from Skikda.