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Folic Acid, Iron, and Zinc Contents in Chosen Food Products Prepared with Fortified Flours

¹Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, Faculty of Chemistry, Rod. D. Pedro I, Km 136, 13086-900, Campinas, SP, Brazil. ²State University of Campinas, Faculty of Food Engineering, Food Science Department, 13083-970, Campinas, SP, Brazil. ³Corresponding author. E-mail: jpallone@fea.unicamp.br

In 2002, Brazil issued a regulation requiring that corn and wheat flours be fortified by the addition of folic acid and iron. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the levels of folic acid, iron, and zinc in macaroni, pizza, and bread prepared with fortified flour. The methodologies used for the mineral (FAAS) and vitamin (HPLC) determinations were validated and considered adequate. For macaroni, the folic acid content range was 50.0–182.4 μg/100 g. The iron and zinc levels were 1.6–5.4 mg/100 g and 0.7–1.0 mg/100 g, respectively. The pizza and bread samples contained 14.8–271.3 μg/100 g and 47.4–481.4 μg/100 g of folic acid, respectively. The iron and zinc levels were 2.6–7.3 mg/100 g and 0.4–0.9 mg/100 g, respectively, for pizza, and 3.0–12.4 mg/100 g and 0.4–0.8 mg/100 g for bread. The results indicated that the distribution of folic acid and iron in the majority of the samples tested was heterogeneous. This study could be of use to governmental authorities in their food fortification evaluation programs. Moreover, the average iron contents observed in the products could result in problems with zinc absorption, and it is important to consider that iron can induce oxidative stress in cells.