Adulterated food scandals and a broader recognition of the importance of essential minerals and elements in the human food chain, especially infant formulas, have prompted increased governmental and regulatory focus on food inspection and analysis. For example, new directives such as the Codex Alimentarius, define essential composition requirements of minimum and maximum levels of mineral substances and trace elements in milk powder.
This report explains a methodology employing a next generation ICP-OES with radial plasma observation and a CEM microwave digestion system that’s simple, fast, accurate, precise, and cost efficient. Moreover the results reported demonstrate that the instrument has the required analytical capabilities in terms of sensitivity, precision, and accuracy to analyze main, minor, and trace elements in milk powder.