Durovic et al. 2017 - microelements in human milk and infant formula
This study compares Zn, Fe, and Cu determination in mature human milk and powdered infant formula using dilution-based sample preparation without digestion. The direct HMT&C value is nutrient-metal context for powdered infant formula and human milk, not toxic-contaminant screening. The paper reports measured Zn, Fe, and Cu in five commercial formula products and 28 human milk samples, with certified reference material checks against infant/adult nutritional formula.
Key numbers
Human milk (Table 8; mg/L, n=28):
| Element | Minimum | Maximum | Mean +/- SD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zn | 2.22 | 9.91 | 5.35 +/- 2.15 |
| Fe | 0.32 | 5.50 | 0.83 +/- 0.99 |
| Cu | 0.12 | 0.92 | 0.47 +/- 0.20 |
Powdered infant formula (Tables 6 and 7; mg/100 g powder):
| Element | ICP-OES product means | FAAS product means |
|---|---|---|
| Zn | 3.48-4.75 | 3.09-4.55 |
| Fe | 3.37-4.56 | 3.55-5.05 |
| Cu | 0.26-0.38 | 0.24-0.37 |
Method validation:
- ICP-OES LOD/LOQ (Table 2): Zn 1.5/5 ug/L, Fe 1.5/5 ug/L, Cu 3.0/10 ug/L.
- Spiked human-milk recoveries (Table 4): Zn 90-94%, Fe 97-103%, Cu 90-102%.
- NIST SRM 1849 infant/adult nutritional formula recoveries by ICP-OES and FAAS were 91/85% for Zn, 93/100% for Fe, and 99/98% for Cu.
- The authors conclude that ICP-OES was better for Zn, FAAS was better for Fe, and both methods were comparable for Cu.
Methods (brief)
Human milk samples were stored frozen before analysis. Formula powder samples were purchased in triplicate and prepared with 20 mL of boiling ultrapure water, cooled to room temperature, and diluted 10-fold with ultrapure water. Zn, Fe, and Cu standards were prepared from 1000 mg/L single-element solutions. ICP-OES used axial configuration with Zn 213.857 nm, Fe 238.204 nm, and Cu 327.396 nm lines; FAAS was used as the comparator method. Quality control used NIST SRM 1849 infant/adult nutritional formula, spiked human milk pools, blanks, and a 0.25 mg/L control standard. Statistical analysis used SPSS 17.0.
Implications
Standards work: This is not a toxic-contaminant occurrence source for Pb, Cd, As, or Hg. It is useful as formula/milk nutrient-metal context and as a method-comparison reference for dilution-based ICP-OES and FAAS work in formula matrices.
Courses: Useful for explaining why nutrient metals in infant formula need to be separated from contaminant metals in HMT&C routing, and why the same analytical platform can support both nutrition labeling and contamination screening.
App: Route Zn, Fe, and Cu as nutrient-metal context for powdered formula and breast milk. Do not use this source to infer toxic-metal compliance.
Microbiome: Not addressed.
Wiki pages this source may touch
- zinc
- iron
- copper
- breastmilk
- infant-formula-powder
- non-soy-infant-formula
- milk-and-dairy
- infant-formula-powder
- infant-formula-powder-non-soy
- infant-formula-dairy
Verification notes
- Fresh auto-fetch ingest 2026-05-19 from the gap-driven infant-formula Cu/Fe/Zn wishlist. The same DOI appeared in three downloaded wishlist rows targeting Cu, Fe, and Zn; this page is the canonical source page for those duplicate downloads.
- Strict brand firewall: the source tables identify commercial formula products by brand name, but this page reports only aggregate anonymized product-group values and product-form descriptors.
- Unit discipline: the abstract describes formula ranges in mg/L, while Tables 6 and 7 label the formula measurements as mg/100 g powder. This page uses the table unit for formula values and the Table 8 unit for human milk.
- The paper reports total Zn, Fe, and Cu only; no species-level issue applies.
- Methods vendor/equipment/reference-material names are retained under Part 12 Exception 2.
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.