The Determination of Minerals and Metals in Multi-Mineral/Multi- Vitamin Tablets by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy

The Determination of Minerals and Metals in Multi-Mineral/Multi- Vitamin Tablets by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy

Introduction

There are many mineral dietary supplements available in today’s marketplace to ensure that mineral deficiencies do not occur in one’s diet. The mineral content of these products must be verified for quality control (QC) purposes. Furthermore, the Nutritional Labeling and Education Act of 1990 mandates accurate labeling of all food supplements sold in the U.S. which means accurate testing of the products is mandatory. In many labs, this task is accomplished by the technique of flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS). FAAS has the advantages of lower initial cost, low cost per analysis, and requires less operator training than many other trace elemental techniques. The objective of this work is to demonstrate the applicability of FAAS using the PerkinElmer^® PinAAcle™ 900T to accomplish this task. Seven elements are determined in two commercially available multi-mineral tablets, a NIST^® Standard Reference Material, and a commercial reference material which simulates a mixed food diet.