Dietary intake of minerals and trace elements in rice on the Jamaican market

Twenty-five rice brands, available on the Jamaican market, and a local field trial sample were collected and analyzed for 36 essential, non-essential and toxic elements using four techniques: flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry (F-AAS), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), and total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF). The mean values for both white and brown rice respectively for calcium (127 mg/kg; 104 mg/kg), chromium (0.08 mg/kg; 0.157 mg/kg), copper (1.65 mg/kg; 2.96 mg/kg), iron (22.3 mg/kg; 20.1 mg/kg), magnesium (371 mg/kg; 1205 mg/kg), manganese (10.5 mg/kg; 26.5 mg/kg), molybdenum (0.790 mg/kg; 0.770 mg/kg), phosphorus (1203 mg/kg; 3361 mg/kg), potassium (913 mg/kg; 2157 mg/kg), selenium (0.108 mg/kg; 0.131 mg/kg), sodium (6.00 mg/kg; 15.1 mg/kg), sulfur (1131 mg/kg; 1291 mg/kg) and zinc (15.6 mg/kg; 20.2 mg/kg) were used to calculate intake values. The percentage contribution to Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intakes were also estimated for the toxic elements aluminum (6.6–17.9%), arsenic (7.8–10.2%), cadmium (5.1–9.0%) and mercury (3.2–12.0%) with ranges dependent on white or brown rice consumption and gender. It was concluded that, for most essential elements, rice does not significantly contribute to mineral nutrition. The local field trial sample yielded encouraging results in terms of uptake of toxic elements.