Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometric (GC-MS) Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Smoked Meat and Fish Ingested by Bangladeshi People and Human Health Risk Assessment

This study investigated the human health risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (naphthalene, fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene, pyrene, benzo(a)anthracene, chrycene, and benzo(a)pyrene) from the consumption of smoked fish (Coral, Telapia, Shrimp, and Rupchanda) and smoked meat (Beef Shikh Kabab, Mutton Shikh Kabab, Kashmiri Kabab, and Chicken Grill) highly consumed by Bangladeshi people quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique. The samples were hydrolyzed in methanolic potassium hydroxide solution and treated with cyclohexane for the extraction of the PAHs from the samples and then subjected to GC-MS technique for the analyses of PAHs. Results showed that the minimum and maximum mean concentrations of the aforesaid PAHs were found to be 19.23 and 294.50 µg/kg in smoked meat, and 4.18 and 4.54 µg/kg in smoked fish samples. Of the carcinogenic PAHs, benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) was the most representative in smoked meat samples ranging from 6.68 to 46.90 µg/kg that exceeded the 5.0  µg/kg maximum level for smoked meat and smoked fish set by the European Commission (EC Regulation No 1881/2006).The present data indicate that all of the smoked meat are unsafe for human consumption. Mathematically calculation representing the carcinogenic risk value of targeted compounds was −4 within the acceptable range of 1.0 × 10−6 to 1.0 × 10−4 (USEPA, 1989). The spike recovery of PAHs was ranging from 70.0 to 90.5% that demonstrated the perfect reliability and accuracy of the methodology employed in this study.