Ricerc@Sapienza

Milk contains a variety of nutrients and is long associated with a number of health benefits. It is rich in high-quality proteins and important vitamins and minerals, including calcium, phosphorus and B vitamins. Recently, however, some people have started to avoid milk due to health problems, such as dietary restrictions, allergies and intolerances, and ethical issues regarding the use of animals. As a result, various types of non-standard dairy milk and nondairy milk beverages are now available (goat milk, donkey milk, soy milk, rice milk, almond milk, oat milk etc.).

Breast milk, the first and irreplaceable source of nourishment for the infant, and the wellbeing of both the mother and baby are increasingly threatened by contamination from environmental toxic agents. In particular, elements can be used as good indicators/tracers of environmental and food contamination. In turn, as well as urine [1–3], and serum [4], breast milk can be considered as suitable biological matrix for biomonitoring studies.

Breast milk guarantees all the nutrients required by infants during their first few months of life and remains the most important food source for their health and growth. However, the mother may transfer potentially toxic chemicals to the suckling infant through breastfeeding. The aim of this study was to optimize and validate a fast method for the determination of a total content of 34 elements (Al, As, B, Ba, Be, Bi, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, Sb, Se, Si, Sn, Sr, Te, Ti, Tl, U, V, and Zn) in liquid and lyophilized breast milk.

Advancements in sample preparation for performing elemental analysis are coming from the dissemination of microwave-assisted procedures, but there is still room for improvements by looking for fast and easily applicable procedures. In the present study, the open-vessel digestion sample treatment (19–21 °C or 95 °C) was compared with closed-vessel microwave-assisted digestion (180 °C). Detection and quantification limits, accuracy, precision, residual carbon content, and residual acidity were quantified with certified and in-field hair samples.

Among the thousands of chemicals having potential to enter the environment, the NORMAN network has identified at least 700 substances categorized into 20 classes in the European surface waters. Pesticides, pharmaceuticals, disinfection by-products, wood preservation and industrial chemicals are the prominent classes. Since the impact of these substances on aquatic life and human health might be dramatic, action is urgently required at multiple levels; one of them is just related to the development of more and more sensible and selective analytical methods.

This review presents advancements in sample preparation and liquid chromatographic methods made during the last 10 years for the fat-soluble vitamin (FSV) analysis in foods. Since activity. and bioavailability of organic micronutrients (MOs) depend on the form in which they are present in a food, special emphasis has been given to the most recent techniques, instruments and approaches which have allowed the extraction and separation of various vitamin homologues as well as the comprehensive MO profiling in foods.