Evaluation of chromium, nickel, iron and manganese content in wheat, flour, bran and selected baked products

Considering the nutritional values, breadstuff plays a big part in covering human nourishment needs and constitutes a base of all day diet. Moreover, bread is an excellent source of numerous vitamins and minerals the abundance of which depends on the degree of grinding. Thus, it seems to be very important to know the composition and level of bio-elements. That is why the main target of this study was to evaluate the concentration of selected trace elements: chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) in wheat grain, wheat bran, different wheat and rye flour types and variety of breadstuff also with addition of grains and seeds from different bakeries and mills. Another task was to analyze if the technological process has an influence on secondary despoil of bread goods with heavy metal elements. The analyzed trace elements were measured with a precise and accurate atomic absorption spectrophotometric method (AAS) and the results were expressed in mg/kg of selected sample. Obtained results show that bread and grain products are a good source of trace elements like chromium, nickel, iron and manganese. However, the higher levels of chromium and nickel in bread goods could rather be an effect of impurity caused by a technological process in mill and bakeries.