Fluoride concentration in foods from Iran

Area of Science:

• Food Science
• Analytical Chemistry
• Public Health Nutrition

Background:

• Accurate fluoride intake assessment is crucial for optimizing fluoride's caries-preventive effects.
• Existing fluoride concentration data for foods primarily originates from developed nations, lacking Middle Eastern representation.
• Iran, a Middle Eastern country, has no available data on fluoride concentration in its food supply.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a modified silicon-facilitated diffusion method for determining fluoride concentration in foods.
• To establish fluoride content data for Iranian foods, augmenting Middle Eastern food composition tables.
• To investigate the influence of drinking water fluoride levels on the fluoride concentration of prepared foods.

Main Methods:

• Collected 510 samples of 84 diverse food and drink items from three Iranian regions with varying water fluoride concentrations (0.32, 0.58, and 4.05 mg/L).
• Employed a modified silicon-facilitated diffusion technique for fluoride analysis, achieving high mean recovery (98% ± 5%) and good precision (within 0.03 µg F/g for duplicate analyses).
• Prioritized samples from areas with lower water fluoride (0.32 mg F/L) for comprehensive dietary analysis.

Main Results:

• Fluoride concentration was below 0.1 µg/g in 30 out of 84 food items.
• Cereals, a dietary staple, exhibited fluoride concentrations mainly between 0.2 and 0.3 µg/g after preparation.
• Fluoride levels in prepared foods showed variation across food groups but generally aligned with existing international data.

Conclusions:

• The modified method for food fluoride determination represents a significant advancement.
• The generated data provides valuable fluoride content information for commonly consumed Iranian foods.
• Higher fluoride concentrations in drinking water positively correlate with increased fluoride levels in water-cooked foods, albeit to a lesser extent than the water's concentration.