Multielement Profiling of Diverse Food Samples

Sensitive, accurate, and comprehensive assessment of the mineral element and metal content of food is important to guide recommendations for nutrition and food safety. However, methods for this purpose currently described in the literature are limited in the range of elements measured, demonstrated application to diverse food matrices, and accessibility of instrumentation. Here, we describe an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method for the simultaneous quantification of 26 elements and illustrate the utility of the method with an analysis of 100 foods from diverse plant and animal sources. New strategies for customizing the standard curve across elements and correcting for instrumental drift allow for the measurement of elements with concentrations varying over 6 orders of magnitude. Results support that this method offers a valuable high-throughput option for identifying medically and culturally appropriate foods that may mitigate mineral nutrient deficiency and foods that should be further assessed for toxic element content.

Automated summary

Sensitive, accurate, and comprehensive assessment of mineral element and metal content in food is crucial for nutrition and food safety recommendations. However, current methods described in the literature have limitations in terms of the measured elements, application to different food matrices, and instrument accessibility. In this study, an ICP-MS method is presented for simultaneous quantification of 26 elements, and its utility is demonstrated through analysis of 100 foods from plant and animal sources. The method allows measurement of elements with concentrations varying over 6 orders of magnitude, making it an efficient option for identifying suitable foods to address mineral nutrient deficiency and possible toxic element content assessment.