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Health risk assessment of Sudan dyes, toxic elements, and pesticide residues in Egyptian spices

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Overview

Ghuniem and colleagues collected 80 spice samples from five Egyptian governorates and measured 12 heavy metal elements by ICP-MS alongside Sudan dyes and 461 pesticides. The four spice types were hot chili, paprika, curry, and cumin, each at n=20. The paper reports element-by-element minimum and maximum concentrations per spice type (Table 6), percentage contributions to provisional tolerable weekly intake (Table 8), and Target Hazard Quotients (Table 9). Hazard Indices for all four spice types were below 1, indicating no significant non-carcinogenic health risk from the metals measured. Lead exceeded the Egyptian and European spice maximum permissible level in 25% of hot chili samples and 25% of curry and cumin samples. Mercury and antimony were below the limit of quantification in all samples.

Key numbers

Hot chili (n=20, dry weight basis):

  • Arsenic: 0.09 to 0.23 mg/kg (Table 6).
  • Chromium: approximately 3 to 7 mg/kg reported in Table 6; mean stated in text as 2.47 mg/kg.
  • Manganese: mean stated in text as 27.0 mg/kg.
  • Nickel: mean stated in text as 0.58 mg/kg.
  • Lead: 25% of samples (5 of 20) exceeded the Egyptian and EU maximum permissible level of 1.56 mg/kg for hot chili (Results text); mean EPTDI as a percentage of APTWI (2.50 x 10 to the minus 3 mg/kg body weight per week) was 1.49%, maximum 3.46% (Table 8).
  • Mercury: below limit of quantification in all 20 samples.
  • Hazard Index: 2.21 x 10 to the minus 1 (below 1.0); principal contributors were cobalt (29.97%), chromium (26.81%), and iron (29.17%) (Table 9).

Paprika (n=20, dry weight basis):

  • Lead: 90% of samples had measurable lead above the limit of quantification; none exceeded the MPL (Results text).
  • Arsenic: 0.04 to 0.13 mg/kg (Table 6).
  • Hazard Index: 8.38 x 10 to the minus 2 (Table 9).

Curry (n=20, dry weight basis):

  • Lead: 25% of samples exceeded the MPL of 1.23 mg/kg for curry (Results text).
  • Arsenic: below limit of quantification in all curry samples (Results text).
  • Hazard Index: 1.08 x 10 to the minus 1 (Table 9).

Cumin (n=20, dry weight basis):

  • Lead: 25% of samples exceeded the MPL of 0.934 mg/kg for cumin (Results text).
  • Arsenic: detected in 80% of samples, mean 0.04 mg/kg (Results text).
  • Cadmium: mean 0.38 mg/kg (Results text).
  • Hazard Index: 2.60 x 10 to the minus 1 (Table 9).

Across all 80 spice samples:

  • 3.75% of all samples exceeded the maximum permissible level for lead (Results text).
  • Mercury and antimony below limit of quantification in all 80 samples.
  • All EPTDI values remained below the APTWI for all elements, even at highest measured concentrations (Table 8 discussion).
  • All individual THQ values below 1 for all elements in all spice types.

Methods (brief)

Samples were collected from markets in five Egyptian governorates. Heavy metals were measured by ICP-MS (PerkinElmer NexION 2000) with Kinetic Energy Discrimination using helium as collision gas and a multi-element internal standard (bismuth, germanium, indium, lithium, scandium, terbium, yttrium at 10 µg/L). Microwave digestion used an Ethos Up system. Certified reference material recovery: 100.5% for manganese (Z-score minus 0.06), 103.9% for cadmium (Z-score +0.22). Repeatability RSD 1.5 to 6.2%; expanded measurement uncertainty k=2 20 to 25%. Nominal LOD for lead was 5.04 µg/kg, cadmium 11.3 µg/kg, arsenic 6.0 µg/kg, nickel 106.8 µg/kg. Sudan dyes were quantified by HPLC-DAD. Pesticides by GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS (461 compounds screened).

Note: internal inconsistencies were observed between the Table 6 minimum/maximum column values and the narrative summary statistics for some elements in hot chili. The narrative EPTDI percentages and exceedance counts are used as the primary reference where these conflict with what Table 6 appears to show.

Evidence fitness

A multi-contaminant market survey with ICP-MS, CRM verification, and consistent QA across four spice types. The 80-sample cross-sectional design across five governorates provides regional coverage within Egypt but cannot characterize global or US market conditions. All results are on a dry weight basis. The paper covers hot chili and paprika as direct proxies for the dried spice ingredient in chili sauces and hot sauce products. The routing destination for the hot-chili-sauces product page is based on these being the key dried ingredient in that product category, not direct finished-sauce measurements.

Limitations

Results are for Egyptian market samples and may not represent other geographic sources commonly used in US or EU commercial chili sauce production. The paper does not resolve arsenic speciation; all arsenic values are total arsenic. Chromium is total chromium; hexavalent chromium was not measured. Cadmium values for hot chili are near or below the limit of quantification and carry higher uncertainty. The dry weight basis is not directly comparable to finished hot sauce (a liquid product) without knowledge of the chili fraction and moisture content of the sauce. Sudan dye contamination at high prevalence (Sudan I detected in all 80 samples at up to 52 mg/kg) is an adulteration finding, not a natural contaminant.

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