The bioaccessibility of four essential micronutrients (iron, zinc, copper and manganese) in some baby foods was evaluated using an in vitro gastrointestinal digestion model. For all of the flour-based foods evaluated, the bioaccessibility of Zn was low, while the bioaccessibility of Cu was above 50%. For these samples, the bioaccessibility of Mn was lower than 50%. Two samples composed of oat and rice flour and whole wheat flour demonstrated a lower bioaccessible fraction of Fe (less than 35%), while the sample made with wheat flour showed high Fe bioaccessibility (approximately 80%). For vegetable- and meat-based baby foods, the Fe bioaccessibility was greater than 80% in samples that contained meat and chicken and approximately 20% for the banana-based sample. The bioaccessibility of Zn was small for all of the foods studied, and in some cases, no Zn appeared to be released. The sample containing banana showed 100% Cu bioaccessibility, in contrast to meat and chicken-based samples, whose Cu bioaccessibility values were less than 50%. The opposite effect occurred for Mn, in which samples containing meat and chicken presented a bioaccessible fraction greater than 50% while the banana-based sample had a fraction less than 50%.
Keywords: Baby foods; Bioaccessibility; Inorganic constituents.
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