Overview
De Castro and colleagues bought 55 infant formulas and milks in Brasilia supermarkets in March 2007 and measured lead, cadmium and zinc by anodic stripping voltammetry and calcium by flame atomic absorption. Tables 2 and 3 give one mean of three determinations per product, so each value describes a single retail product, not a brand average. Lead was high in several powdered cow-milk infant formulas, while cadmium was mostly below detection.
Key numbers
- Powdered infant formula, product L1: lead 3.7084 ± 0.5819 mg/kg; product L11: 3.3199 ± 1.5270 mg/kg; product L5: 1.2271 ± 0.0327 mg/kg (Table 2, p. 4067).
- Powdered infant formula, products L6 to L10 and L12: lead below detection (dash cells, Table 2).
- Powdered milk L3: cadmium 0.0103 mg/kg, the only powdered product with detectable cadmium (Table 2).
- Fluid milk: lead up to 0.2441 ± 0.0929 mg/L (L30) and cadmium up to 0.0771 ± 0.0052 mg/L (L51) (Table 3, pp. 4067-4068).
Methods (brief)
Closed-vessel microwave digestion with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide, then anodic stripping voltammetry on a hanging mercury drop electrode for zinc, cadmium and lead and flame atomic absorption for calcium. Method LODs are given per litre of digest (lead 2.71 µg/L, cadmium 0.62 µg/L). Spike recoveries were 91 to 111% for lead and 95 to 100% for cadmium; no certified reference material was used.
Evidence Fitness
One retail sample per product, analysed in triplicate, from a 2007 Brazilian market; useful as early occurrence data for cow-milk-based (non-soy) infant formula. The table dash cells are undefined and are read as below detection from the text. The abstract medians (powdered lead 0.109 mg/kg) cannot be reproduced from Table 2, and fluid milk results are per litre and are not comparable with mg/kg values. Product names in the tables are brands and are not used here.