Determination of Fe and Zn in petit suisse cheese: analytical aspects and levels found in commercial samples

Abstract

The Petit Suisse cheese is very popular among children, it is usually enriched with vitamins D and E and also enriched with calcium, phosphorus, zinc and iron salts. In this work it was critically evaluated the levels of Fe and Zn in commercial Petit Suisse cheeses employing the flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) and different methods of mineralization of the samples (dry ashing and wet digestion). The wet digestion, which was selected for the studied samples, provided results that are more accurate and then was used to analyze nine commercial samples which levels of Fe varied in a concentration range from 0.010 to 0.066 mg g-1 while the levels of Zn ranged from 0.004 to 0.057 mg g-1. The presence of these micronutrients was also observed in non-enriched commercial samples which shows that the quality of milk is of key importance in the final product characteristics. The method is sensitive enough to determine these mineral micronutrients.