Dietary intake and health risk assessment of essential and toxic elements in pepper (Capsicum annuum)

The content of twenty-one essential and toxic elements in fresh, dried, and processed peppers (Capsicum annuum) obtained from the Serbian market was analyzed. The concentration of the elements varied significantly between the analyzed samples. The most abundant essential element was K with an average concentration of 8.4 g/kg fresh weight. All processed products also had increased Na content, reaching a maximum value of 15.8 g/kg fresh weight in peppers from the pepper-meat products. Toxic elements Pb, Cd, and As were found in all analyzed samples, while Hg was detected in a few samples. Based on guideline values or recommended dietary intake, pepper and pepper products are not a significant source of essential elements. The health risk assessment was conducted by calculating target hazard quotient (THQ) and carcinogenic risk (CR), as well as comparing estimated weekly (Al, Hg, Cd) and daily intake (As, Pb) with appropriate PTWI and BMDL values. The risk assessment results indicate that peppers and pepper products are mostly safe for consumption both for adults and children. However, consumption of some pepper samples may pose a health risk due to an incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) value higher than 10−4.