Content of Zn, Cu, Fe and Mn in processed fruit and mixed fruit and vegetable foodstuffs for infants

Abstract

A baby’s diet can be greatly varied by offering new tastes. Children tend to consume willingly fruit such as apples or bananas. The first fruit tastes may be recognized by children by enriching their menu with dessert products containing pressed fruit, delicate in taste and smooth in texture so that they are easy to swallow. The research material consisted of fruit and vegetable desserts for infants and young children. Fifteen different types of desserts (in jars) from eight different manufacturers were tested. The content of Zn, Cu, Fe and Mn was determined by means of the AAS flame technique in a Unicam 939 (AA Spectrometer Unicam) apparatus. Although the permissible levels of Zn, Fe and Mn (Journal of Law 2007) were not exceeded in the dessert products, nearly all the products contained too much copper. The analyzed products contained the average of 282.2 mg of Zn per 100 kcal, 648.9 mg of Fe, 129.5 mg of Cu and 195.4 mg of Mn. Assuming that a baby aged 9-12 months consumes one jar of dessert daily, she/he ingests almost 0.27 mg of Zn (9% of the RDA), ca 0.63 mg of Fe (5.7% of the RDA), 0.12 mg of Cu (40% of the AI) and 0.21 mg of Mn from the product. Fruit and vegetable products are an important source of mineral elements in the baby’s diet. Because they usually contain less Zn and Mn in reference than demanded, they are a supplementary product rather than a staple one in infant nutrition.