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ABSTRACT
Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry multielemental profiling was performed to determine eight elements in 54 vegetable samples. The range of concentrations of Fe and Ni was 1.91 ± 0.09 to 443.31 ± 22.32 mg/kg and 0.05 ± 0.004 to 16.36 ± 0.36 mg/kg, respectively. The concentrations of Pb and Cd were up to 1.56 ± 0.04 and 0.78 ± 0.04 mg/kg, respectively. Some samples exceeded the maximum admissible limits imposed by national and international regulations. The mean concentrations of Mn and Cu were between 20.93 ± 0.43 and 13.98 ± 0.30 mg/kg in tomatoes and 20.60 ± 0.53 and 11.25 ± 0.22 mg/kg in peppers. For the evaluation of health risk related to the consumption of vegetables, the daily intake rate, target hazard quotient (THQ), and hazard index were evaluated. The daily intakes were low and correspond to 2 to 14% of the tolerable daily values established by legislation. The results showed that the THQ and hazard index for the metals were lower than 1, indicating that the vegetable ingestion does not represent a significant risk for consumer health. Analysis of variance revealed that Zn may be used as a species-specific marker (p = 0.026). Principal component analysis extracted three main components, explaining a total variance of 72.49% and grouped all determined elements.