Determination of trace elements in gluten-free food for celiac people by ICP-MS

This paper is the first analytical approach to the study of twenty heavy metals in the gluten-free foods for celiac people. Only the ICP-MS technique was used. One of the advantages about the use of ICP-MS for this characterization is the high sensitivity that improved the limits of quantification levels for some elements that are present at low quantities in some samples. The concentration values of As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sb, Se, Sn, V and Zn in seventeen gluten-free food samples are reported. The highest arsenic and molybdenum levels were measured in Rice noodle from China (0.088 and 0.47 mg kg(-1), respectively). The highest concentrations of some metals (Cu, Ba, Cd, Pb, Hg, Sr and V) were found in bread and breadstick samples produced in different bakeries located at Palermo. To examine the overall heavy metal concentrations in all gluten-free samples analyzed, metal pollution index (MPI) was calculated. Gluten-free foods analyzed contain levels of trace elements under the limits tolerated by the law. Considering the average concentrations of some trace elements found in the present study, it can be concluded that they are inadequate if compared with the recommended daily intake by international organisms, providing from 1.1 to 53% of the RDI for the essential metals. These conclusions are in good agreement to some authors affirming that commercial gluten-free cereal foods, made of refined flours or starches, are of lower nutritional value compared to their wheat counterparts. The metal pollution index and health risk index of heavy metals also suggest that Cd, Pb and Ni contamination in most of the test gluten-free food had potential for human health risk due to consumption of food at contaminated not industrial laboratory. Considering our data, health risk index was lower than 1 for all the samples except nickel in a sample of pasta. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.