Determination of total iodine in food samples using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry.

A method was developed and validated for the extraction and determination of total iodine (I) in food composite samples, representing different foods available on the Canadian market, by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Prior to analysis, samples were digested in a closed microwave system using a mixture of nitric acid and perchloric acid. The detection limit for iodine determination was 29 nglg and precisions of 10 and 1.3% were obtained for 10 replicate measurements of 100 and 1000 ng/g standards, respectively. The method was validated using Certified Reference Materials and spike recovery measurements in food samples and was applied for the determination of iodine in a variety of food composite samples from the Canadian Total Diet Study. The high sample throughput of ICP-MS makes the method suitable for analysis of large numbers of food samples with varying matrixes, such as for Total Diet Studies.