293
Views
3
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Article

Heavy metals contamination levels in the products of sugar industry along with their impact from sugar to the end users

, ORCID Icon, ORCID Icon, , &
Pages 2407-2416 | Received 28 Jan 2022, Accepted 28 Mar 2022, Published online: 12 Apr 2022
 

ABSTRACT

The aim of the current case study is to sequentially assess the heavy metals (HMs) cadmium (Cd), iron (Fe), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) in five products (raw juice, bagasse, mud-cake, refined sugar and molasses) along with the effluents of the selected sugar industry (SSI) Sindh, Pakistan. Estimations of daily intake and possible toxic risk of HMs by the consumption of sugar of SSI to end-user (families of SSI workers) of age group of 2.0–5.0, 6.0–15.0, 16.0–30.0 and 31.0–50.0 years were conducted. The high contents of HMs were observed in molasses followed by mud-cake and bagasse (raw waste). The raw juice of sugarcane and refined/white sugar showed the lowest levels of these HMs. The low levels of HMs in effluents of SSI might be to their separation at different stages of sugar processing and refining into the mud-cake, bagasse and molasses. The calculated daily intake of Fe and Zn from refined/white sugar to various study groups was found to be adequate based on the recommended levels by Food and Nutrition Board (FNB). The estimated weekly intake (WI) for Cd and Pb by the consumption of SSI sugar was significantly lower (2–5 times) than the provisional acceptable WI of Cd and Pb by WHO from foodstuff. The potential toxic risk study of Cd and Pb revealed that the studied subjects were not at potential toxic risk by the consumption of SSI sugar.

Acknowledgments

Authors would like to acknowledge the National Centre of Excellence in Analytical Chemistry for financial assistance during sampling and rest of research activities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 61.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 1,223.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.