## 3 Results  
The mean and range of concentrations of metals in flaxseed samples are presented in Table 2. The elements were grouped according to seed type (organic and conventional) and categorized as essential elements and potentially toxic elements (PTEs). Among the essential elements (C, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, and Zn), only 4 out of 11 (Cu, K, Mg, and Na-36.4%) showed higher concentrations in the organic group compared to the conventional samples. On the other hand, more than half (55.6%) of the PTEs (B, Ba, Pb, Sr, and V) classified as organic exhibited higher levels when compared to their conventional counterparts. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Essential Elements**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Reference Dose**} & **Potentially Toxic** & **Reference Dose** \\  & **(RfD) (mg/kg/day)** & **Elements** & **(RfD) (mg/kg/day)** \\ \hline Ca & - & Al & \(4\times 10^{-4}\) \\ Cr & \(3\times 10^{-3}\) & B & 0.2 \\ Co & \(3\times 10^{-4}\) & Ba & 0.07 \\ Cu & \(4\times 10^{-2}\) & Cd & \(1\times 10^{-3}\) \\ Fe & 0.7 & Li & - \\ K & - & Ni & \(2\times 10^{-2}\) \\ Mg & - & Pb & \(1\times 10^{-7}\) \\ Mn & 0.14 & Sr & 0.6 \\ Mo & \(5\times 10^{-3}\) & V & \(5.04\times 10^{-3}\) \\ Na & - & & \\ Zn & 0.3 & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Reference doses of the essential elements and potentially toxic elements (PTEs) [39]. When grouped by seed type (Figure 1 for essential elements and Figure 2 for potentially toxic elements), _t_-tests and Mann-Whitney tests revealed that metal concentrations varied between organic and conventional seeds for certain elements. Al and Ni exhibited higher levels in conventional flaxseeds compared to organic flaxseeds (_p_ = 0.0312 and \(p\) = 0.0142, respectively). Moreover, Na showed a decrease in concentration in the conventional samples compared to the organic group (_p_ = 0.0072). Table 3 presents the estimated daily intake (EDI) of each element based on daily flaxseed consumption of either 15 g/day or 30 g/day. The highest EDI values were observed for K, Mg, and Ca, respectively. Hazard index (Figure 3) values above 1 were observed for Al and Pb in both exposure scenarios (15 and 30 g/day) for both organic and conventional seed groups. In the 15 g/day exposure scenario, Al yielded an HI of 3.22 and 4.79, while Pb yielded an HI of 789.15 and 612.01 (organic and conventional seeds, respectively). Similarly, in the exposure scenario with flaxseed consumption of 30 g/day, Al yielded an HI of 6.45 and 9.58, whereas Pb presented HI values of 1578.3 and 1224.02 (organic and conventional seeds, respectively). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**15 g Flaxseeds/Day**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**30 g Flaxseeds/Day**} \\ \cline{3-7}
**Group** & **Element** & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Organic Seeds**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Conventional Seeds**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Organic Seeds**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Conventional Seeds**} \\ \hline  & Ca & 6.14 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-01}\) & 6.86 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-01}\) & 1.23 \(\times\) 10\({}^{+00}\) & 1.37 \(\times\) 10\({}^{+00}\) \\  & Cr & 8.49 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-04}\) & 1.18 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-03}\) & 1.70 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-03}\) & 2.36 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-03}\) \\ Essential Elements & Co & 2.41 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-05}\) & 5.33 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-05}\) & 4.82 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-05}\) & 1.07 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-04}\) \\  & Cu & 2.44 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-03}\) & 2.36 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-03}\) & 4.89 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-03}\) & 4.73 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-03}\) \\  & Fe & 7.56 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-03}\) & 8.81 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-03}\) & 1.51 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-02}\) & 1.76 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-02}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Estimated daily intakes (EDIs) in both dietary consumption scenarios.