Br, Cl and I determination in food samples via microwave digestion
A new method for the determination of Cl, Br and I in food, mineralizing samples in a mixture composed exclusively of H2O2 in an alkaline medium is presented here. The high performances of ultraWAVE system allow to obtain high quality digested solutions with low Residual carbon content (RC). This innovative protocol allows to decrease the analysis process thanks to the fast sample preparation procedure performed with Single Reaction Chamber (SRC) technology.
INTRODUCTION
Halogens are a group of reactive elements, which are capable of creating stable bonds in different types of food. They play an important biochemical role in living organisms as there are some forms of elements such as Cl and I, which are essential for humans, while others, such as Br, could be toxic and cause damage to the organism.
This is the main reason why this group of elements has been extensively studied in food and biological materials, especially in recent years.
EXPERIMENTAL
In this work, a new method using a Single Reaction Chamber (SRC) was evaluated for Honey, Corn bran (NIST 8433) and Rice flour (NIST 1568a) digestion using only H2O2 in an alkaline medium for subsequent Br, Cl and I determination by ICP-based techniques.
The accuracy of the proposed method was assessed using the previously described certified reference materials.
Four commercial samples of honey obtained from different regions of Rio Grande do Sul State (Brazil) were used.
CONCLUSION
Thanks to the high performance of ultraWAVE it is possible to obtain a complete mineralization of food samples using only a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and alkaline solution.
Tests show that the ability to reach a digestion temperature of 250 ° C, it is crucial to obtain the proper quality of digestion and ensures a reliable analysis of halogens especially for Iodine.
