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The selenium content of infant food

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Summary

The selenium content of food exhibits great regional differences. Food samples of infants and young children from the North Rhine-Westphalia State in the Fed. Rep. of Germany were analysed by instrumental neutron activation analysis and showed that the average selenium content of local vegetable and fruit is below 5 ng/g wet weight. Only samples of potatoes and bananas exhibit higher selenium contents. The bananas, probably imported from different areas of the world, show an extremely high variance with values between 4 and 164 ng Se/g. Commercially available ready-for-use meals for infants or young children have a low Se content (median 24 ng/g) which is comparable to cow's milk. Besides eggs, cereals enriched with milk and some other cereal products contain more than 100 ng Se/g.

Zusammenfassung

Der Selengehalt der Nahrung weist große regionale Unterschiede auf. Nahrungsproben von Säuglings- und Kleinkinderkost aus Nordrhein-Westfalen wurden mit Hilfe der instrumentellen Neutronenaktivierungsanalyse untersucht und zeigten, daß der Selengehalt der hiesigen Gemüse und Früchte durchschnittlich etwa 5 ng/g beträgt. Nur Proben von Kartoffeln und Bananen weisen einen höheren Selengehalt auf. Bananen, importiert aus verschiedenen Gebieten der Erde, zeigen eine extrem hohe Schwankungsbreite mit Werten zwischen 4 und 164 ng Se/g. Fertiggerichte für Säuglinge und Kleinkinder haben einen der Kuhmilch vergleichbar niedrigen Selengehalt von durchschnittlich 24 ng/g. Außer Eiern enthalten nur Milchbreie und einige andere getreidehaltige Produkte mehr als 100 ng Se/g.

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Ebert, K.H., Lombeck, I., Kasperek, K. et al. The selenium content of infant food. Z Ernährungswiss 23, 230–236 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02021475

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