Safety Evaluation of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the Environment and Ready-to-eat Foods during Dry and Wet Seasons in Parts of Port Harcourt City, Rivers Sate, Nigeria

Safety implications of the presence of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the environment and selected ready-to-eat foods were investigated to determine the impact of wet and dry seasons on food safety in some parts of Port Harcourt. The study was carried out using complete randomized block design in three (3) factorial experiment. The experiment was conducted in dry and wet seasons along the 3 locations (Makoba-station 1, Elekahia-station 2 and Rivers State University-station 3). The Six Food products investigated were roasted plantain, roasted fish, roasted yam, suya, meat pie and doughnuts were purchased from parts of Port Harcourt city respectively. The results showed that VOCs value was highest (19950 µg/m3) at station 1 during the dry season and as low as 1471 µg/m3 during the raining season at station 1. VOCs level was higher in station in 2 and 3 (14817 and 15283 µg/m3) during the dry season compared to lower values of (700 and 1086 µg/m3) for station 2 and 3 during wet season respectively. No volatile organic compounds was detected in the street vended food samples during the raining season. However, Ethyl Benzene (2.3x106 ng/ul and 2.0 3x106 ng/ul) were detected in doughnut from station 3 and 1 during the dry season. The impact of factorial interaction of season and location on the presence of Volatile Organic Compounds in ambient air (VOCs ) and vended street foods were significant (P<0.05).The presence of Volatile Organic Compounds in street vended foods is a source of health concerns.