Investigation of heavy metals and important micro nutrients in milk powder and common baby food in Tehran market

Powdered milk or complementary foods, despite the importance ofbreastfeeding, play an important role in providing baby food in the world. The aim of thisstudy was to measure the amount of heavy metals in baby food. Heavy metals cadmium, lead,and arsenic cause the highest effects in humans, especially in children, and Fe, Mg, Ca, andZn are important micronutrients that, if deficient in nutrients, can have adverse effects onchildren's health.

This study was performed on 8 baby food samples from 6 commoncommercial products in the market. Sampling was carried out by census method andmeasurement by induced plasma emission ICP-OES methods.

The results were reported by descriptive statistics. The results showed that arsenicranged between 2.8 to 8 ppm in all the samples examined that indicated excessiveconcentration of this heavy metal while the trace concentration of cadmium was observed.Lead concentration was in the range of 0.012 to 0.103 ppm. The concentration of iron,calcium, magnesium and zinc in some samples agreed with the standard values while in someindicated lower content.

According to the results of this investigation, the amount of arsenic in baby foodsamples is higher than the specified limit. Some attention should be given to those samplesthat contain lower contents of calcium and zinc as noticed by standard values.