Preliminary chemometric study of minerals and trace elements in Spanish infant formulae

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The concentrations of minerals (Na, K, P, Ca and Mg) and trace elements (Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, Se, Al, Cd and Pb) in a total of 105 different infant formulae (starter, follow-up, premature, specialised and soya formulae) marketed in Spain were determined by atomic spectrometry (flame and electrothermal) and inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy after acid-microwave decomposition. On the basis of the elements distribution, a preliminary chemometric study with the use of pattern recognition methods was carried out. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), principal component analysis (PCA), as unsupervised exploratory techniques, and linear discriminant analysis (LDA), were applied to characterise, classify and distinguish the different types of infant formulae. The HCA results showed that mineral and trace element content data support adequate information to obtain the infant formula differentiation. PCA permitted the reduction of 13 variables to four principal components accounting for 61.9% of the total variability. This four-factor model interprets reasonably well the correlations of these studied elements. The obtained element associations may be attributed to the composition of matrix ingredients, the contamination during elaboration, the additives and mineral supplements added and the present tendency of standardization in the manufacture of infant formulae. The application of LDA gave a 77.1% of infant formulae correctly assigned with three clearly differentiated and two overlapped groups. The use of discriminant functions, as a complementary tool, to distinguish the different types depending on protein matrix of infant formula, is also discussed. This survey shows that HCA, PCA and LDA techniques appear useful tools for the characterisation and classification of infant formulae using their elemental profile.