Determination of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and iron in emulsified egg samples by flame atomic absorption spectrometry.

Abstract In this study, oil-in-water formulations were optimized to determine sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and iron in emulsified egg samples by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). This method is simpler and requires fewer reagents when compared with other sample pre-treatment procedures and allows the calibration to be carried out using aqueous standards. Different oily phases such as corn oil, decyl oleate and octyl stearate were tested, as well as Tween 80, Triton X-100 and Triton 114 were analyzed as surfactants. The optimum type and proportion of formulations were determined and their use depended on the element studied. The emulsion preparation was performed by a conventional method that involves mixing both phases at 60 °C by magnetic stirring and phase inversion to change the water-to-oil ratio by increasing the volume of the surfactant–water external phase and correspondingly decreasing the volume of internal phase. The accuracy of the method was further confirmed by determining the metals in a whole egg powder CRM and recoveries ranged from 97.5% for Mg to 102.2% for Na, with relative standard deviations lower than 2.3%. The precision of the procedures was determined through repeatability (intra-day precision) and intermediate precision (inter-day). The repeatability presented RSD values lower than 4.2%. The intermediate precision was evaluated using the RSD and F -test. The RSD values to intermediate precision was lower than 5.3% and the computed F -values were lower than tabulated F -values, indicating no significant difference between the results obtained on different days. The proposed method including, sample emulsification for subsequent metal determination for FAAS, has proved to be sensitive, reproducible, simple and economical.