Inorganic arsenic contents in infant rice powders and infant rice snacks marketed in Korea determined by a highly sensitive gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry following derivatization with British Anti-Lewisite

Abstract

Toxic inorganic arsenic (iAs) has been reported to be present in high quantity in rice and rice-based products. The inorganic arsenic contents in infant foods (n = 59) of ready-to-cook infant rice powders and infant rice snacks marketed in Korea were determined by a highly sensitive gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). The mean iAs contents in the infant rice powder and infant rice snacks were 65.6 and 54.0 μg/kg, respectively. The percentages of rice powders and rice snack containing iAs over the maximum level (100 μg/kg) set by EU for the infant foods were found to be 21, and 6%, respectively. This result clearly suggested that regulation regarding the maximum limit of iAs levels for the baby rice products is urgently needed to be set in Korea. This represents the first report on the iAs levels in ready-to-cook infant rice powder products and infant snacks marketed in Korea.

Characterization and Quantification of Arsenic Species in Foodstuffs of Plant Origin by HPLC/ICP-MS

“…Yang et al developed a sheath–flow interface to couple CE with ICP-MS to characterize arsenic species from seafood [ 39 ]. On the other hand, some protocols based on GC and tandem mass spectrometry were developed for the determination of inorganic arsenic species (As III and As V ), previous derivatized using dimercaprol, in rice products and rice based infant foods, reaching very low LoDs [ 40 , 41 ]. Both Guillod-Magnin et al and Lin et al developed an IC-ICP-MS method but using an anion exchange column and cation exchange column, respectively, and obtained a perfectly inverted chromatographic profile.…”