Quantitative determination of selenium in the most common food items sold in Egypt

• Published in: Journal of the Egyptian Public Health Association
• Main Authors: Fawzya Moatkhef, Hanaa Ismail, Neveen Agamy, Samar Aborhyem
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2020
• Subjects: Selenium; Food samples; Egypt; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s42506-020-00044-z; https://doaj.org/article/1eed8f39e98747a5b7fb54ae9b8588f4

Abstract Particular interest in selenium (Se) was generated as a result of clinical studies showing that balanced Se dietary system is very important for many physiological processes. There is no recent information available on the Se content in Egyptian foods. The present study was conducted to measure Se content in different food groups. A cross-sectional study was designed; a total of 87 food items were randomly purchased from the main markets and hypermarkets in Alexandria governorate, then digested by wet ashing procedure and finally analyzed using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The highest mean Se value was obtained in protein-rich food followed by nuts and sweetened products (6.8, 6.2, and 5.89 μg/g respectively) shrimps had the highest value among all studied samples (6.8 μg/g), while the lowest one was in soft cheese (0.0036 μg/g). Selenium content in food groups is strongly correlated with food matrix and composition of food items, soil composition, and fortification process.