Evaluation of the mineral content of infant formulas consumed in Brazil

Abstract

The mineral content of 10 commercially available milk-based infant formulas widely consumed in Brazil was investigated. The levels of elements (Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, and Zn) were determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry after microwave-assisted wet digestion. The results were compared with the producers' label declarations and levels proposed by the Codex Alimentarius and the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency. The obtained results were in good agreement with certified reference materials, and the relative standard deviation of the measurements was always below 10%, with the exception of Cu (up to 14%). A high degree of variation between the experimental and producers' data was found for trace elements among different brands, with differences as high as 41 and 68% for Cu and Zn, respectively. The content of minerals in the starting formulas was in accordance with levels established by the Codex Alimentarius, with the exception of 1 brand that had a Zn level that was not in agreement with the Codex minimum value. Among follow-up formulas, 2 brands contained levels of Ca and K that were higher than the maximum established by Brazilian standards, and 1 brand contained less than the minimum value recommended for Zn. The guidance upper levels have not been established in the Codex Alimentarius for follow-up formulas, and the maximum value has been established for only 2 of the analyzed minerals. This lack of a standard could be a problem; as shown in the present study, if the Brazilian standard is used, several formulas could be considered out of specification. Despite the limited number of samples evaluated in this work, the levels of some elements were out of specification and special attention by the Brazilian government on the content of minerals in infant formulas is needed.

Determination of Key Chemical Elements by Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis in Commercially Available Infant and Toddler Formulas consumed in UK

“…potentiometric method. (F and Cl) [6,14], capillary zone electrophoresis (Ca, K, Mg, and Na) [15], laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (Ca, Fe, Mg, Na) [16] inductively coupled plasma optical/atomic emission spectrometry -ICP-OES or ICP-AES (Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, P, Se, and Zn) [17][18][19][20][21][22], inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry -ICP-MS (Ag, Al, As, Ba, Be, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sb, Sn, Tl, V, and Zn) [2,21,[23][24][25][26][27][28], instrumental neutron activation analysis INAA (Ca, Cl, Co, Cr, Cs, Fe, Hg, K, Mg, Mn, Na, P, Rb, Sb, Sc, Se, and Zn) [18, [29][30][31][32], and energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence technique -EDXRF (Ca, Cl, Fe, K, P, S, and Zn) [33][34][35].…”

“…Because the values of many chemical element concentrations reported by the infant first milk producer did not agree with our results obtained by EDXRF it was decided to compare available data on chemical element contents in the infant formulas published for the last 20 years [5,6,14,17,22,[39][40][41][42][43]. For proper comparison the element levels in all powder formulas were converted by us from dry mass basis to concentration in mg/L.…”

Uma abordagem dos ensaios in vitro para estimar a absorção dos minerais em fórmulas infantis

“…Quando a amamentação não é possível, desejável ou as mães são incapazes de fornecer leite suficiente, fontes alternativas balanceadas de nutrientes devem ser usadas. Atualmente, a opção recomendada para crianças nascidas a termo saudáveis (recém-nascido cuja idade gestacional foi entre 37 semanas e 41 semanas e 6 dias) é a fórmula infantil (FI) (Silva et al, 2013b;Martin et al, 2016;Zou et al, 2016).…”

“…Uma ingestão equilibrada de nutrientes do lactente pode ser conseguida pelo consumo de FI e é, sem dúvida, mais adequada do que o consumo de leite de vaca (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2016). O consumo de minerais durante a primeira infância é um fator crítico devido à alta taxa de crescimento das crianças e sua deficiência pode afetar o desenvolvimento e gerar consequências ao longo de sua vida (Silva et al, 2013b).…”