Abstract:
(Oryza sativa L.) is a crucial staple crop that almost half of the world's population uses as their primary source of nutrition. Aflatoxins are harmful secondary metabolites of fungi that affect agricultural products before, during, and after harvest. There are both immediate and long-term health concerns associated with eating cereal grains because of the accumulation of harmful heavy metals in the body over time. The objective of this study was to determine the concentration level of aflatoxins, toxic elements, and some essential elements in rice samples commonly cultivated from Fogera Woreda. A total of eleven composite three-varieties of rice samples in six kebeles were randomly collected from the market and in-house to determine aflatoxins (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, and AFG2) and heavy metals by using HPLC-FLD and MP_AES, respectively. In all rice samples collected, no type of aflatoxin considered in this study was detected; however, the mean concentrations of metals ranged from 250 to 336 mg/kg, 149 to 679 mg/kg, ND to 13.7 mg/kg, 17166 to 13135 mg/kg, 171 to 399 mg/kg, 5.91 to 13.7 mg/kg, ND to 0.55 mg/kg, ND to 0.6 mg/kg, and ND to 0.00175 mg/kg, respectively. The aflatoxins result indicates there were good harvesting and storage practices, and the moisture content supports this. The mean concentrations of Zn, Mn, and Mg metals (289 mg/kg, 260 mg/kg, and 14122 mg/kg) were relatively high compared with the reported studies. The results of risk assessments for children and adults in terms of hazard quotient, hazard index, and cancer risk of Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, Cd, Pb, Cr, and As suggest that consumers of certain rice varieties may not be exposed to non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic hazards.