Food is the fuel for life and our health depends on our choices considering which foods we eat and also which foods we do not eat. To keep our body in balance requires a careful consideration of the quality and the quantity of our food choices.
Of course, we are responsible for our choices and we can make better ones by having chemical and nutritional information. Food choices are dependent on availability, costs, cultural habits, etc., but it is also important to have information about proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and minerals content. There are several chemical elements that we need in high amounts, such as calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium. There are others that, despite being essential, we need in comparatively minor amounts, such as iron, zinc, copper, manganese, iodine, and selenium. Also, there are some elements that we must not ingest, such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Eliminating these latter elements as much as possible is critical for health of adults, and even more critical for the health of infants.
It is clear that we have two important allies for improving food safety: education and legislation. According to the new legislation we must be able to measure concentrations of As, Cd, Hg, and Pb in levels from 2 to 15 μg/kg.
| Summary
This eBook will talk about the following topics:
- Purity of reagents, as well as how they can be easily purified.
- Contamination and cleaning of laboratory materials.
- Sample preparation procedures that involve digesting high amounts of samples using low volumes of purified nitric acid.
- Analytical procedures with lower numbers of successive steps.
