Digestion and Analysis of Food Samples

Introduction

Each year, an estimated 48 million people in the United States get sick and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases. In an effort to curb those statistics, in December of 2010, Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) which was signed into law in January of 2011. The act overhauled regulations regarding food production and gave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) more authority to oversee and enforce supply chains.

In order to help ensure foods are safe and comply with these new regulations, the FDA has published analytical methods that manufacturers or importers can use in their laboratories. One of the methods includes the FDA Elemental Analysis Manual (EAM) EAM 4.7 for ICP–MS. This analytical method in particular outlines the sample preparation process using microwave-assisted acid decomposition.

The purpose of this study was to develop microwave digestion procedures on a variety of food products from the food pyramid, as well as Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) using the CEM BLADE microwave digestion system. A modified FDA EAM 4.7 methodology was used for the acid digestion step. Samples were analyzed for metals determination of major constituents as well as trace metal impurities of the prepared samples.