Fortified breakfast cereals are an important source of nutrition for children, and consumers have come to expect high quality from a variety of cereals and continue to select fortified products over non-fortified products in the marketplace. The efficient production of these nutritionally fortified breakfast cereals requires careful formulation and uniformity batch to batch. Ongoing analytical measurement of nutritional additives and the total micronutrient content in the cereal is one way in which food producers can quantify the quality and consistency of their cereal products.
While ICP-OES is generally favored as a multi-element analytical method, the cost savings, simplicity and speed of operation of flame atomic absorption (AA) provides an attractive alternative. This work demonstrates the ability of the PinAAcle™ 900 AA with a FAST Flame sample automation accessory to rapidly and accurately measure nutritional elements in a variety of fortified breakfast cereals.