Aluminum content and effect of in vitro digestion on bioaccessible fraction in cereal-based baby foods

[Display omitted] •Total concentration and bioaccessible fraction of aluminum in baby food samples.•In vitro digestion method was developed and optimized to evaluate aluminum.•Total concentration and bioaccessibility varied according to the product composition.•Exposure to Al was estimated and compared with Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake. The aim of this work was to determine the total concentration and the effect of in vitro digestion on the bioaccessible fraction of aluminum (Al) in 35 different cereal-based baby food samples and estimate the exposure to this element considering the consumption of this product. Total Al content was determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry after oxidative microwave digestion. An in vitro digestion method was applied and optimized to evaluate the bioaccessible fraction. The methods performance was efficient for both approached analysis and presented limits of detection and quantitation of 53 μg kg−1 and 89 μg kg−1, respectively. Total concentration and bioaccessibility varied according to the product composition (rice, oat, wheat, barley, corn, multicereal and fruit). Multicereals and fruit-based (plum) cereals presented the highest total Al concentrations (8.82 mg kg−1 and 7.49 mg kg−1, respectively), whilst lower values were observed for corn and rice flour cereals (0.92 mg kg−1 and 1.09 mg kg−1, respectively). The bioaccessible fraction varied from 1.5% to 10.4% in the evaluated samples. Exposure to Al was estimated and compared with the Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) of 2 mg kg−1 body weight. The results showed that the daily consumption of three portions of cereals contributes up to 10.48% of the PTWI, when considering the total Al concentration reported in this study.