A Rapid Routine Methodology Based on Chemometrics to Evaluate the Toxicity of Commercial Infant Milks Due to Hazardous Elements

The toxicity and the health risk assessment associated to the presence of some hazardous elements (HEs) in dried (infant formula and powdered) milks due to manufacturing and packaging process, raw materials used, environmental conditions, etc. need to be determined. With this aim, a new methodology based on the combination of health risk quotients and non-supervised (as cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA)) chemometric techniques is proposed in this study. The methodology was exemplified using the concentration of 27 elements, some of them HEs, measured in 12 powdered milk samples produced for children and adults in Brazil and Colombia. The concentration values were obtained by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) after acid microwave digestion. Elemental concentrations vary depending upon the type of milk (initiation, growing-up, follow-on milks and adult milks). However, hazard quotients (HQ) and carcinogenic risk (CR) values showed no risk associated to the presence of HEs on milks. The methodology designed made possible to conclude that adults’ milks are more characteristic of elements naturally present in milk. Children milks present major presence of trace and minor elements. Between infant milks, sample H, designed for babies between 12 and 36 months, was identified as of poor quality. Moreover, it was possible to deduce that while the fortification process applied to children powdered milks is a probable metal and metalloid source, together with the manufacturing, the skimming process is not a contamination source for milks. Graphical abstract