In the present paper, the mineral composition of wheat flour consumed in Brazil was evaluated. In the sampling step 54 samples were collected in 15 cities, including principal Brazilian cities such as: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Porto Alegre, Recife and others. The elements determinate were: calcium, copper, magnesium, manganese, iron, phosphorus, potassium and zinc. The samples were digested using nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide in open system. The analytical technique employed was Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP OES). The method validation (including digestion and determination) was performed using a certified reference material of wheat flour furnished by National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST). Considering the 54 samples analyzed, the results demonstrated that the macronutrients: calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus have average contents of 0.27, 0.35, 1.71 and 1.92 mg g-1, for concentration ranges of 0.11-1.96, 0.19-0.51, 0.76-3.16 and 0.81-7.15 mg g-1, respectively. The micronutrients: copper, iron, manganese and zinc have average contents of 1.84, 37.8, 8.2 and 9.4 µg g-1, for concentration ranges of 1.00-2.80, 10.5-146.6, 3.9-14.7 and 5.1-13.9 µg g-1, respectively. The results were also evaluated using the multivariate analysis techniques: principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA).
wheat flour; minerals; Brazilian cities; ICP OES; principal component analysis (PCA); hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA)
