Determination and evaluation of 26 toxic, potentially toxic and essential elements in infant cereals in Chinese market

Abstract

In this study, the concentrations of 26 elements in imported and domestic infant cereals were evaluated by ICP-MS and risk assessment was performed based on the results of the measurements. For toxic elements, the exceedance rates of Cd and Pb were 20% and 16.7% and all toxic elements showed ingestion risk, especially 100% samples of As had hazard quotient (HQ) > 1 for the first age group. For potentially toxic elements, no detectable levels were obtained for Be, Co, Ga, Sb and Tl. Only 10% of the samples indicated that long-term intake of Al could pose a health risk. For essential elements, Na, Ca and Zn performed better in domestic samples. However, none of the elements 100% met of the intake requirements eventually. At the same time, standards for complementary foods for infants and young children are still not sufficiently regulated. As the first weaning food, infant cereals should receive more attention in terms of safety and nutritional properties especially the potentially toxic elements.