CONCENTRATIONS AND HAZARDS OF POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS IN HAWKED BAKED READY-TO-EAT FOODS IN NIGERIA

The total concentrations of the Sigma 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were examined in some samples of baked ready-to-eat foods (cake, sausage roll, meat pie, burger, and bread) with a view to provide information on the hazards associated with the consumption of these hawked street foods. The measurements were performed by using a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) after hexane/dichloromethane extraction and clean-up. The total concentrations of the PAHs in these samples of ready-to-eat baked foods ranged from 427.4 to 1224 mu g kg(-1), 289.9 to 853.7 mu g kg(-1), 574.4 to 2333 mu g kg(-1), 364.6 to 2906 mu g kg(-1), and 15.7 to 213.1 mu g kg(-1) for cake, sausage roll, meat pie, burger, and bread, respectively. The results indicated that these baked ready-to-eat foods were mainly contaminated with 2-, 3-, and 4-ring PAHs. The concentrations of benzo(a) pyrene were less than 0.1 mu g kg(-1) in nineteen out of the twenty samples examined.