Toxic Elements in Dried Milk and Evaluation of their Dietary Intake in Infant Formula

Abstract

Infant’s feeding patterns are important for development and growth; therefore babies are very sensitive to toxic elements, mainly through their food, so in the present study, the concentrations and daily intake of some Toxic Elements (TEs); Lead (Pb), Arsenic (As), Cadmium (Cd), Mercury (Hg) and Aluminum (Al) were measured in different and random 60 dried infant foods {30 infant formula (0-6 months) and 30 milk-cereal based infant formula (6 months)} which obtained from various supermarkets and pharmacies. The analysis was done using Inductive Coupled Plasma - Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS). It could be determined the lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury and aluminum by mean values of 0.424±0.006, 0.205±0.003, 0.014±0.0001, 0.298±0.007and 0.464±0.029 mg/Kg in the examined infant milk formula samples and a ranged minimum to maximum concentrations of 0.114-0.177, 0.155-0.293, 0.014-0.015, 0.282-0.310 and 0.287-0.437 mg/kg, respectively in the examined milk-cereal based infant formula. Present study indicates that, the greater level of contamination of examined infant formula samples with toxic elements (lead and mercury) surpasses the maximum limit and Provisional Tolerable Daily Intake (PTDI) of these elements. Mercury is over PTDI (0.0005 mg/kg bw/day) in all milk-cereal based infant formula samples, also arsenic in all examined samples of this type of formula was exceed the maximum limit (0.05 mg/kg) of Indian standard. This investigation shows such types of infant formula need more amendment to set limit of more toxic metals for this sensitive group of population.