Risk Assessment of Dietary Elemental Intakes Contributed by Commercial Baby Foods from Indian Market

Abstract

Dietary elemental intake has received great attention as it relates to potential health effects on infants. In the present study, the analysis of branded and non-branded packaged baby foods using Inductively Coupled Plasma -Atomic Emission Spectrophotometer (ICP-AES) revealed presence of essential (Ca, Co, Cu, Cr, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Zn) and non-essential (Al, Ba, B, Li, Ni, P, S, Pb, Sc, Si, Sn, Sr, Ti) elements. Inter-elemental correlation and comparison between levels of elemental contents in milk and cereal based powders (PIF), fruit based infant formulae (FBBF) and milk based foods (MBF) were investigated. The presence of high concentrations of Ba, Ca, Mg, Mn and S in ragi-based infant formulae may be attributed to their highly significant (p ≤ 0.01) inter-elemental correlation. The higher average daily intakes of Cu, Mg and Mn were found to be 0.606 mg/day, 129.483 mg/day and 8.815 mg/day, respectively, however, that of Ba and P were found to be 0.461 mg/day and 322.668 mg/day, respectively, in powdered infant formulae of various brands. The higher average daily intakes of Cr (7 µg/day to 69 µg/day) and Pb (39 µg/day to 85 µg/day) were observed in baby foods which may impose risk to health of babies when consumed frequently. Therefore, this study warrants the monitoring of higher levels of elemental contents, with respect to their recommended limits, along with fortification of essential elements in processed baby foods, in order to provide balanced and safe nutritive diet.