Al-Faraji 2023 - Minerals and lead in powdered infant formula from Baghdad markets

Al-Faraji measured calcium, iron, zinc, copper, and lead in 10 powdered infant formula samples sold in Baghdad Governorate, Iraq. The source is routeable for powdered infant formula occurrence evidence because it reports sample-level lead and copper concentrations from atomic absorption analysis. The paper does not resolve soy versus non-soy formula status, so it should route at the broad powdered-infant-formula level rather than to a soy or dairy subrow.

Key numbers

Table 3 reports metals in ppm for 10 powdered infant formula samples:

Lead range: 0.0000-0.0025 ppm, equivalent to 0.0-2.5 ppb if the paper’s ppm values are interpreted as mg/kg in powdered formula. The simple mean across the 10 reported Pb values is 0.00141 ppm, equivalent to 1.41 ppb on the same assumption.

Copper range: 0.0261-0.3924 ppm. The same table also reports calcium at 86.3874-102.3985 ppm, iron at 0.5519-3.4062 ppm, and zinc at 3.7447-10.8040 ppm; those nutrition minerals are not HMTc heavy-metal analytes but may matter for source verification.

Methods (brief)

The study collected 10 powdered infant formula samples from local markets in Baghdad Governorate during July-August 2021. The paper states that samples were digested using the Anastasio et al. 2006 method and analyzed on a Shimadzu AA-7000 atomic absorption spectrometer in the Market Research and Consumer Protection Center laboratories at the University of Baghdad.

The paper reports total lead and total copper only. It does not report arsenic, cadmium, mercury, nickel, aluminum, chromium, tin, or uranium, and it does not provide LOQ/LOD or dry-matter conversion details. Because the matrix is powdered infant formula as sold, the values should remain on the powder-as-sold basis unless a later standards workflow applies an explicit preparation-factor conversion.

Implications

Certification: The source contributes low-ppb total lead occurrence evidence for powdered infant formula available in the Iraqi market. It is not a U.S.-market benchmark source and should be retained as non-target-market context unless a governance packet explicitly admits Iraq-market samples into a sensitivity pool.

Courses: The paper is a compact example of why row-fit should not stop at “infant formula”; the form is powdered, but soy versus non-soy status is not resolved.

App: The values can inform broad powdered-formula context, with jurisdiction and market caveats.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• infant-formula-powder
• infant-formula-powder
• lead
• copper

Verification notes

The DOI, author, publication, year, and license were read from the PDF header and first page. The source names commercial formula labels in Table 1, but this source page does not reproduce brand-level findings; sample-level rows are anonymized to preserve the wiki brand firewall while retaining the numeric distribution needed for evidence routing.

The abstract says lead was measured in powdered infant formula and the results section states that all samples except one had detectable lead. Table 3 provides the routeable values. The paper also contains some internal wording ambiguity about whether lead should be absent under one cited Iraqi standard versus within permitted residue concentrations under other cited Iraqi standards; this source page treats the regulatory comparison as source context and routes only the occurrence measurements.

Page history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.