Comparative Assessment of Heavy Metal Accumulation in Food Packaged with and Without Newspaper

This study comparatively examined heavy metal accumulation in food packaged with newspaper and without newspaper. Newspaper is the most widely used source of food packaging all over the world. These papers may likely contain heavy metals. Heavy metals are toxic to biological systems because they biodegradable naturally and tend to accumulate in living organisms. Samples of fried akara, masa, fried yam, fried plantain, and suya were randomly collected, with some wrapped in newspaper and others not, to compare their heavy metal composition. The heavy metal levels in food wrapped with newspaper and those not wrapped with newspaper were analyzed using microwave digestion and Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry. The findings of this study revealed that food wrapped in newspaper had significantly higher Cu, Cd and Pb levels compared to unwrapped foods. Hg concentration is low across all samples, with values ranging from 0.01±0.00 to 0.04±0.01. These findings showed that packaging foods with newspaper can significantly increase the levels of some heavy metals, particularly cadmium (Cd) and copper (Cu). These findings revealed that the use of newspaper for food packaging may expose consumers to heavy metal risk and should be discouraged.