Overview
This PLOS ONE study measured manganese in 44 infant formulas and young-child nutritional beverage products from the United States and France using simultaneous PIXE/RBS analysis. Products included cow-milk, goat-milk, soy, rice, amino-acid, chocolate-containing, supplemented, and unsupplemented products labeled from birth through 3 years. The occurrence signal is not a toxic-metal contaminant in the usual Pb/Cd/As/Hg sense, but it is important for infant formula risk assessment because Mn has neurodevelopmental toxicity concerns at excess exposure.
Key numbers
United States market products (Table 1; n=25):
| Metric | Mn (ug/g dried product) | Mn (ug/L prepared product) | Mn (ug/100 kcal prepared product) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | 1.3 | 160 | 26 |
| Maximum | 32 | 2800 | 860 |
| Mean | 5.0 | 650 | 110 |
| Median | 2.7 | 400 | 55 |
French market products (Table 2; n=19):
| Metric | Mn (ug/g dried product) | Mn (ug/L prepared product) | Mn (ug/100 kcal prepared product) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | 1.5 | 200 | 32 |
| Maximum | 5.9 | 1200 | 140 |
| Mean | 2.6 | 390 | 55 |
| Median | 2.1 | 310 | 46 |
Regulatory comparison and ingredient-class findings:
- Across all tested products, Mn mass fractions ranged from 1.3 to 32 ug/g, and prepared-product concentrations ranged from 160 to 2800 ug/L.
- The authors compare these values with typical human breast milk Mn means of about 3-6 ug/L.
- Thirty-four of 44 products listed supplemental Mn.
- Seven of 25 US products exceeded the Codex guidance upper level of 100 ug Mn/100 kcal used for infant formula; two were labeled as infant-formula products and five were labeled for children older than 12 months.
- None of the 17 French powdered infant or follow-on formulas exceeded the 100 ug Mn/100 kcal maximum used in French/EU rules; one French liquid complementary food reached 140 ug/100 kcal but was outside the formula category.
- The highest value, 860 ug/100 kcal, came from a supplemented rice-based product labeled for young children.
Methods (brief)
Samples were selected by maximum-variation sampling to capture product types expected to span high and low Mn content. Powdered samples were reconstituted according to product labels and dried-product mass was measured to convert directly measured ug/g values to ug/L prepared product and ug/100 kcal. The analytical method combined particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) with Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS). Accuracy was checked with NIST SRM 1849a infant/adult nutritional formula: certified Mn 49.59 +/- 0.97 ug/g; measured Mn 49.48 +/- 1.61 ug/g; relative error -0.22%.
Implications
Standards work: This source is a strong formula/nutritional-beverage Mn distribution source and is relevant to infant formula standards discussions, especially where formula products are supplemented with Mn or contain soy/rice ingredients. It should not be treated as Pb/Cd/As/Hg contamination evidence.
Courses: Useful for teaching why nutrient elements can become toxicology-relevant at high intakes and why prepared-product units (ug/L and ug/100 kcal) matter for infant formula.
App: Supports Mn context for formula products, especially soy-, rice-, amino-acid-, and toddler-formula variants. Preserve the paper’s non-probabilistic sampling caveat; the sample was designed to find high/low ranges, not estimate market-weighted prevalence.
Microbiome: Not addressed.
Wiki pages this source may touch
- Manganese
- Infant Formula Powder
- Non-soy infant formula
- Soy-based infant formula
- Rice Milk
- Milk and Dairy
- Infant Formula Powder
- Infant Formula, Powder (Non-Soy)
- Infant Formula, Powder (Soy-Based)
- Infant Formula Dairy
- Infant Formula Dairy Free
- Infant And Child Foods Master
Verification notes
- Fresh auto-fetch ingest 2026-05-19 from the gap-driven infant-formula Mn wishlist.
- Strict brand firewall: the source tables use study IDs rather than commercial names; this page reports aggregate values and product-form/protein-source descriptors only.
- The paper’s sampling method is explicitly non-probabilistic maximum-variation sampling, so the table means and medians should not be generalized to market prevalence.
- Methods vendor/equipment/reference-material names are retained under Part 12 Exception 2.
Update history
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