Heavy Metal Contamination of Pleurotus Tuberregium Sclerotia (Osu) Consumed in Enugu, South East Nigeria

Abstract

Heavy metal contamination of food is a global public health problem especially in developing countries. The WHO 2015 report on global burden of food contamination stated that an estimated 600 million people are affected resulting in 420,000 deaths annually with children under 5 years of age constituting 40% of burden and 125,000 deaths annually. The present study was aimed at determining the concentrations of Nickel (Ni), Cadmium (Cd), Lead (Pb) and Chromium (Cr) in some samples of wild type pleurotus tuberregium sclerotia consumed in Enugu, Southeast Nigeria. Heavy metal concentrations were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS 240FS) Varian, Varian Inc, Japan. The range for concentration of Nickel was (3.29+0.63-3.67+0.00), Cd (0.002+0.01-0.005+0.0), Pb(0.04+0.03)-0.07+0.02) and Cr(0.46+0.26-1.0+0.62),ppm respectively. These are within the WHO tolerable concentrations of Ni, Cd, Pb and Cr in food. These findings shows that pleurotus tuberregium sclerotia consumed in Enugu has lower concentrations of heavy metals compared to the WHO recommended values.