Analysis of Se contents in Korean representative cereals and vegetables

There are little reports on the Se nutritional status of Korean because of the deficient Se database on foods. The measurement of Se content is difficult compared to other micro‐minerals, because it is volatile and lost by heating during prereatment. This study was aimed to measure Se contents in vegetable foods by INAA using freeze‐drying method as pretreatment. The Korean representative cereal and vegetables were selected. To minimize contaminations, all the instruments and storage tools were used after washing with HNO3. The homogenized food samples of 10~20g were freeze‐dried at the temperature of 60C for 48~96 h. Subsequently, INAA‐method was employed to determine the contents of Se in the freeze‐dried food samples. Analytical quality control was conducted using NIST SRMs. The analysis limit of Se in foods by INAA was 0.01ppm. The LODs were different between cereal and vegetables, being in the range of 0.002~0.149. Se contents could not be detected in some cereal and vegetables. The Se contents in the detectable cereals ranged from 0.21 to 10.42ug in 100g cereals and were various by cereal type. The Se contents in vegetables were various and in the range of 0.56~18.35ug in 100g food. This result would be useful for establishment of food Se database and useful in assessment of Korean Se intake status