Overview
Amarh and colleagues measured eight metals in 22 locally and internationally produced infant formula and baby-food samples purchased from markets and baby-care centers in Wa, Ghana. The study used ICP-MS after acid digestion and reported sample-level concentrations in mg/kg, plus EDI, THQ, HI, and cancer-risk calculations for infants aged 6-12 months. The occurrence finding is broad infant-food/formula evidence: the paper does not provide enough product-code decoding in the extracted text to assign each sample to a specific formula, cereal, puree, snack, or mixed-meal row. The paper reports total metals only; it does not distinguish inorganic arsenic, methylmercury, or hexavalent chromium (Cr-VI).
Key numbers
| Metal | Mean, mg/kg | Source-reported range, mg/kg | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| total arsenic (tAs) | 0.028 | 0.006-0.057 | Table 1 and section 3.1.1 |
| cadmium (Cd) | 0.051 | 0.043-0.064 | Table 1 and abstract; section 3.1.2 has a likely typo 0.0043-0.064 |
| chromium (Cr) | 0.211 | 0.113-0.339 | Total Cr; no Cr-VI speciation. The abstract prints the upper bound as 0.33; Table 1 and section 3.1.4 give 0.339. |
| total mercury (tHg) | 0.001 | not detected-0.002 | Total Hg; no methylmercury speciation |
| Mn | 2.117 | 1.720-3.568 | Included because the source measured it and used it in HI |
| nickel (Ni) | 0.100 | 0.065-0.183 | Table 1 and section 3.1.7 |
| lead (Pb) | 0.137 | 0.061-0.368 | Table 1 and section 3.1.5 |
| Sb | 0.056 | 0.017-0.100 | Section 3.1.6; Table 1 does not print an Sb mean |
Additional source-reported values:
- Sample count: 22 baby food and infant-formula samples sold in Wa, Ghana.
- Daily intake assumption for EDI: 160 g/day for infants 6-12 months; reference body weight 9.3 kg.
- Matrix-spike recoveries: 98.0 +/- 1.2% for arsenic (As), 102.0 +/- 1.1% for cadmium (Cd), 99.6 +/- 4.3% for chromium (Cr), 100.0 +/- 1.2% for mercury (Hg), 102.0 +/- 1.6% for Sb, 99.6 +/- 1.5% for lead (Pb), 108.0 +/- 4.8% for nickel (Ni), and 108.0 +/- 4.2% for Mn.
- Table 4 reports HI values from 2.68 to 7.66. The abstract reports HI as 2.68-6.83, but the table value for TL1 is 7.66.
- Table 4 reports sample-level THQ values for As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Mn, Ni, and Pb. Several abstract/conclusion percentages and maxima differ from Table 4, so Table 4 should be used directly for any risk-table extraction.
- Table 5 reports cancer-risk values for As and Pb, with total CR values mostly between 1.66E-04 and 1.51E-03; at least one printed row appears arithmetically inconsistent, so row-level CR values should be rechecked before reuse.
Methods (brief)
The authors randomly purchased 22 locally and internationally produced infant formula and baby-food samples from retailers, vendors, markets, and baby-care centers in Wa, Upper West Region, Ghana. Samples were stored at room temperature without milling or drying, then 1.0 g was digested with 10 mL HNO3:HCl (1:1) at 250 degrees C until clear, diluted to 50 mL, filtered through 0.45 µm membrane or Whatman No. 1 paper, and analyzed by ICP-MS (PerkinElmer, 2000 series). Quality control used reagent blanks, triplicate analyses against NIST certified reference material, and matrix spike / matrix spike duplicate recovery checks for each batch of ten samples. The paper reports total metals only.
Implications
This source is high-value broad Category 1 evidence for infant foods and formula sold in Ghana, especially for Pb, Cd, total As, total Hg, Ni, Cr, Sb, and Mn occurrence in the same sample set. It should route to broad infant-food pages, but the extracted text does not decode the sample IDs into formula, cereal, puree, snack, or mixed-meal rows, so row-specific standards pooling would require source-level product-code review first. Total As cannot be used as inorganic arsenic, total Hg cannot be used as methylmercury, and total Cr cannot be used as Cr-VI. The paper is useful for courses as a teachable example of why infant-food occurrence papers need a product-code dictionary before standards math can safely use them.
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