Mineral Profile of Children’s Fast Food Menu Samples

Abstract

Children's fast food menus, including hamburgers served with french fries, dessert, and a soft drink, were analyzed to obtain the mineral profile of trace elements. The developed analytical methodology involved sample digestion under pressure inside a microwave oven with a mixture of HNO3 and H2O2 and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry. The method was validated by carrying out the analysis of certified reference materials (NIST 1570a spinach leaves, NCS ZC73016 chicken, and NIST 1568a rice flour) and using recovery experiments. Repeatability was verified by analyzing replicate samples. Twenty-six elements were studied, 12 of which-aluminum, barium, calcium, copper, iron, potassium, lithium, magnesium, manganese, sodium, strontium, and zinc-were quantitatively determined. Results were compared with other studies of fast food and children's menus published in the literature, and the nutritional value of samples was assessed with dietary intake guidelines.

Determination of Total Mercury in Spanish Samples of Baby Food, Fast Food, and Daily Meal

“…The pre-treatment of the samples followed the procedure proposed by Ruiz-de-Cenzano et al, 48 and Mir-Marqués et al, 49,60 briefly described below: the whole mass of the meal samples was crushed, homogenized, and frozen at -20 °C before freeze-drying for a minimum of 48 h at a chamber pressure of 0.05 mbar. Freeze-drying was performed to preserve and pre-concentrate the food samples by eliminating water content.…”

“…On the other hand, few studies 5 on the levels of mercury present in fast food samples and canteen menus were found. Despite this, research has already been carried out on the elemental profile of similar foods, as studies published recently determined 12 elements in children's fast food 48 and 14 elements in commercial baby food. 49 Various techniques have been employed to determine mercury levels in food samples based on cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry (CV AAS) and cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectrometry (CV AFS).…”

Impacts of Acquired Iron Deficiency on Adolescent Health

“…In adolescence, eating disorders can include refusal to eat, skipping breakfast, replace the main meals for snacks, reducing intake of fruits and vegetables, and adopt diets for excessive weight loss, all because of the undue importance given to body image as a result of inadequate publicity in the media and the cult of ultrafine models, often malnourished [17,18]. Another important aspect refers to the consequences of the increasing dependence on fast food, due to its availability and ease, which is potentially harmful due to nutritional characteristics that include high energy, fat and sodium and low fiber, vitamins, calcium and iron content [17][18][19].…”