Bioavailability of Fe and Zn in selected legumes, cereals, meat and milk products consumed in Fiji.

The present study reports contents and the bioavailability of Fe and Zn from 25 selected raw and cooked food samples. The results showed highest variation of Fe content in raw food samples ranging from 2.19 ± 0.04 to 0.93 ± 0.03 mg/100g in legumes. The raw black eye bean, cheese and fish showed high Zn content up to 8.85 ± 0.01, 12.93 ± 0.26 and 172.03 ± 5.09 mg/100g, respectively. Pulses and cereals showed high level of ionizable Fe. Zn bioavailability was quite low in cereals as compared to pulses; 4.02% in yellow split to 17.40% in Bengal gram. Zn bioavailability of 17.40% is in cheese. Fe bioavailability is high in cooked rice 160.60%, white bread 428.30% and milk powder 241.67% showing that Fe bioavailability increased after cooking whereas the lowest in fish 0.84%. The multivariate and cluster analysis categorized studied foods into two main groups.