Determination of selenium in cereals, legumes and dry fruits from southeastern Spain for calculation of daily dietary intake

Hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry was used to determine selenium content in cereals, legumes and dry fruits from the coast of the province of Granada (southeastern Spain). Accuracy was assured using both a NIST SRM 1572 and recovery experiments. The precision expressed as relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) varied between 6.50% for seeds and 15.98% for bread. The highest selenium concentrations were found for dry fruits (294.6 ng/g), followed by legumes (111.8 ng/g), and the lowest for cereals (27.8 ng/g). Considering the average daily individual consumption of these foods in Andalusia (southern Spain), the daily dietary intake of selenium supplied by this source is 15.36 μg/day for an adult. The content of total selenium in corn samples taken from the zone is independent of both human and industrial activities (P > 0.05).