Infant Supplement Quality Evaluation by Inductively Coupled Plasma - Mass Spectrometry, Gas Chromatography, and Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry

There is a growing interest by both consumers and industry in the development of food products with functional properties or health benefits. These food supplements are especially important for infants; thus their safety must be guaranteed. However, the use of different raw materials, process technologies, and storage technologies may impact food quality and safety in undesirable ways. The purpose of this work was to investigate commercially available infant food supplements targeting: (1) content of macro/micro nutrients and toxic metals; (2) volatile organic compounds that contribute to flavor and aroma composition of food; (3) content of fatty acids; and (4) delta C-13 to determine the origin of the raw material for these products. These were performed in order to evaluate their quality with respect to nutraceutical value and safety. Different chemometric methods were used for the statistical interpretation of the data including analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation, principal component analysis (PCA), and linear discriminant analysis (LDA).