Contents of essential and toxic mineral elements in Swedish market-basket diets in 1987

Abstract

Market baskets containing sixty food items included in the average Swedish diet were purchased from three shops in four major Swedish cities during autumn 1987. Food items were selected on the basis of food-balance-sheet data. Freeze-dried homogenates representative of each city were analysed for twelve essential or toxic mineral elements. The energy content of the market baskets (11.5 MJ) corresponded to the reference value for male adults. At this energy level the contents of calcium (1180 mg), magnesium (300 mg), iron (16 mg), zinc (12 mg) and selenium (44 μg) were above or close to the Swedish recommended daily intakes. The contents of manganese (3.7 mg) and molybdenum (150 μg) were within and that of copper (1.2 mg) was below the safe and adequate intake values given in the US recommended dietary allowance (Food and Nutrition Board, National Research Council, 1989). The content of nickel was 82 μg. The contents of lead (17 μg), cadmium (12 μg) and mercury (1.8 μg) in the daily diet were low compared with the provisional tolerable intakes set by the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives (World Health Organization, 1972, 1989). The market-basket contents of Ca, Mg, Fe and Zn calculated from values in the Swedish food composition tables were close to the analysed values, indicating that the Swedish food tables provide relevant information for the estimation of the dietary supply of these elements.