Multielemental determinations in chocolate drink powder using multivariate optimization and ICP OES

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Spectroscopy

Background:

• Accurate elemental analysis of food products like chocolate drink powder is crucial for quality control and safety.
• Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP OES) is a powerful technique for multielemental analysis.
• Optimization of ICP OES operating parameters is essential for achieving robust and sensitive methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To optimize operating conditions for ICP OES for multielemental determination in chocolate drink powder.
• To evaluate the impact of radio frequency power, nebulization flow rate, and auxiliary argon flow rate on plasma robustness and signal-to-background ratio (SBR).
• To develop a sensitive and robust analytical method for quantifying 15 elements in chocolate drink powder.

Main Methods:

• Multivariate experiments using a 2(3) central composite design were employed.
• Key parameters investigated included radio frequency power, nebulization flow rate, and auxiliary argon flow rate.
• Plasma robustness and SBR were assessed in parallel to determine optimal conditions.

Main Results:

• Optimized conditions were determined as 1200 W radio frequency power, 0.6 L/min nebulization flow rate, and 0.3 L/min auxiliary argon flow rate.
• The optimized method achieved recoveries between 95-105% and relative standard deviations below 5% for most analytes.
• Analysis of 15 chocolate drink powder samples revealed higher metallic species concentrations in diet and light products.

Conclusions:

• The proposed ICP OES method is robust and sensitive for multielemental analysis in chocolate drink powder.
• The optimized conditions provide reliable quantification of target analytes.
• Diet and light chocolate drink products may contain higher levels of certain metallic elements.