Overview
Gerônimo and colleagues measured 17 elements by ICP OES in eight commercial cereal-based foods for children over six months, bought in Campo Grande, Brazil, in June 2023, and estimated intakes and hazard indices. Arsenic, cadmium, cobalt and chromium were below detection in every product. Lead was quantified in five products (0.111 to 0.411 mg/kg) and was below detection in the other three.
Key numbers
- Lead: 0.174 ± 0.076 (80% rice cereal), 0.207 ± 0.233 (rice and oat cereal), 0.411 ± 0.137 mg/kg (wheat and milk cereal); <LOD in three products (Table 7).
- Arsenic and cadmium: “<LOD” in all eight products (Table 7).
- Nickel: 0.066 to 0.535 mg/kg (Table 7).
Methods (brief)
Ground samples were microwave digested and analyzed by ICP OES. Spike recoveries at 0.5 ppm were 83 to 114% (lead 98%); LODs are given in mg/L of digest (lead 0.003 mg/L). No certified reference material is reported. Each product is one production lot, measured in triplicate.
Evidence Fitness
A small single-city snapshot with one lot per product and spike-only QA; several lead SDs are as large as the means. Two products contain oat flour mixed with rice or wheat, but none is an oat cereal, so for infant-oat-cereal this is a mixed-grain proxy. None of the products is an infant formula, so it is also only a proxy for cereal-based-infant-formula; neither thin page is linked. Intake tables report lead for one product listed as below LOD in Table 7.