Health risk assessment of potentially toxic elements in canned Pinto beans and Fava beans distributed in Gilan Province of Iran

The rising consumption of canned foods has raised concerns about their contamination with potentially toxic elements and the potential health impacts on humans. This study aimed to measure the levels of potentially toxic elements in canned pinto beans and fava beans distributed in Gilan Province and assess the associated health risks for local residents. In this descriptive-analytical, non-interventional cross-sectional study conducted in 2023, 90 samples of canned pinto beans and fava beans were randomly collected using cluster sampling from chain stores in Rasht city. Concentrations of potentially toxic elements (arsenic, copper, lead, iron, tin, zinc, manganese, cadmium, and mercury) were measured using an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES). Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23, while graphs and tables were generated with OriginPro version 2018. Mean comparisons were performed at a 5% significance level. Health risks for carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic diseases from consuming canned pinto beans and fava beans were evaluated using Monte Carlo simulation with 10,000 iterations in Crystal Ball software. The innovation and practical significance of this method, as a universally accepted elemental analysis method due to approval from reputable global institutions such as United States Pharmacopeia (USP) for the identification and measurement of potentially toxic elements in pharmaceutical and food products, was its ability to analyze multiple elements simultaneously, high speed, accuracy and low detection limit (in the ppm to ppb range), and adaptability to a variety of samples including food. The initial and operational cost and limited sensitivity for some elements such as halogens were limitations of this method. In this study, the maximum measured cadmium level was below the EU standard limit (0.1 mg/kg). The order of potentially toxic elements concentrations in both canned pinto beans and fava beans was similar: mercury < cadmium < arsenic < lead < tin < copper < zinc < iron. The highest concentration was observed for iron (3.57 mg/kg in pinto beans and 7.079 mg/kg in fava beans) and the lowest concentrations were for cadmium (0.004 mg/kg in pinto beans) and arsenic (0.01 mg/kg in fava beans). The mercury concentration in both canned pinto beans and fava beans was below of detection limit (0.01 mg/L). The non-carcinogenic risk was negligible for 95% of consumers; however, the carcinogenic risk from potentially toxic elements for 95% of consumers of canned pinto beans and fava beans was 2.68 × 10⁻⁵ and 1.30 × 10⁻⁵, respectively. The results indicated that the non-carcinogenic risk from consuming canned pinto beans and fava beans fell within acceptable limits. Nevertheless, a potential lifetime cancer risk exists for consumers, necessitating further investigation and the implementation of control measures. Although the concentration of these metals in canned food samples was acceptable but it was necessary to pay attention to the factors that increased the presence of these metals in canned goods in order to control them and achieve a high-quality product. Lead and arsenic, both classified as probable human carcinogens (IARC Group 2 A), were not detected at levels that pose a potential lifetime cancer risk, particularly concerning due to their cumulative toxicity and long biological half-lives.