Characterization of the Bioaccessibility of Minerals from Commercial Breakfast Cereals by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP OES)

Abstract

Traditional chocolate and whole-meal flour breakfast cereals were analyzed to determine the total concentrations and bioaccessibilities of some elements. For the total concentration, the samples were prepared by microwave digestion. In addition, certified reference materials were used to verify the accuracy of the method, which was 82–106% for the analytes. Great variation in the concentrations was observed, possibly due to the raw materials used to produce the cereals. For the bioaccessibility study, an in vitro digestion method was used, and the accuracy was verified by the addition and recovery method. Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn had detectable bioaccessibilities from 37% to 47%, 1% to 41%, 8% to 61%, and 4% to 24% of the total concentrations, respectively. Aluminum, Ba, and Mo had concentrations below the limit of quantification. Therefore, breakfast cereals complement a healthy diet, since some essential elements have high bioaccessibilities.

Keywords:

• Bioaccessibility
• breakfast cereal
• inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES)
• inorganic constituents
• in vitro digestion

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Conselho Nacional de Desempenho Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Process n° 447552/2014-7 and Process n° 573894/2008-6 and FAPESP Process n° 2008/57808-1 for their financial support. This study was finaced in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Capes) Finance Code 001.