The Toxicological Safety Evaluation of Co-precipitation Ferric Hydroxide and Its Application in Yogurt

Iron is the most abundant trace elements in human, however, the anemia due to the lack of iron-iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is popular in the world. According to the World Health Organization, the IDA patients may account for about10percent to30percent of the world’s population, which in developing countries may be as high as50%or more. The present study focused primarily on the prevention of iron deficiency anemia by adding iron in the food in order to improve iron intake, through a variety of iron fortified foods to meet the needs of the body iron.According to the requirements of The Toxicological Evaluation Procedure and Method of Food Safety, the acute toxicity test, the bone marrow cell micronucleus test, the mice sperm abnormality test and the thirty days feeding study were carried out in co-precipitation ferric hydroxide. And then as an iron fortifier added to the yogurt, the qualities of yogurt were studied.Acute Toxicity Test showed no symptom of poison and no death occurred in mice administrated orally with co-precipitation ferric hydroxide. The male and female mice oral LD50was more than21.50g/kg, which indicated there was actually no toxicity according to the standard of toxicity grade classification.The bone marrow cell micronucleus test and the mice sperm abnormality test showed that in each test dose, between the experimental group and control group there was no significant difference, both results were negative. So co-precipitation ferric hydroxide can be considered no mutagenic effect on mice.The thirty days feeding study showed that the weight of medium dose group (5.00g/kg.ig) of female rats was significantly higher than that in the control group since the second week; the spleen index of low dose group (2.50g/kg.ig) and high dose group (10.00g/kg.ig) of female rats was significantly higher than that in the control group; the total cholesterol of medium dose group of male rats (5.00g/kg.ig) was significantly lower than that in the control group; the triglyceride of low dose group (2.50g/kg.ig)and medium dose group (5.00g/kg.ig) of female rats was significantly lower than that in the control group. The liver tissue sections of Co-precipitation ferric hydroxide high dose group has minor pathological changes and that co-precipitation ferric hydroxide may be potential liver toxicity. In addition, the SD male and female rats, body weight, food efficiency, haematological indices, blood chemistry indicators and organ pathology observed in the thirty days feeding study showed no adverse effects. According to the results of this study, the no observed adverse effect level for systemic toxicity after oral administration was preliminary concluded as5.00g/kg.ig for co-precipitation ferric hydroxide.The application of co-precipitation ferric hydroxide in yogurt showed that the suitable dosage of co-precipitation ferric hydroxide (count as Fe) was10-30mg/kg. And the optimized processing condition of yogurt was iron dosage of20mg/kg, starter culture inoculum size of5%,white sugar of6%.In the same iron dosage, ferric pyrophosphate, ferrous sulfate, ferrous lactate, EDTA ferric sodium salt, ferrous fumarate, co-precipitation ferric hydroxide were used as iron enhancer to prepare yogurt, and the control group was established. The results showed that the sensory score of co-precipitation ferric hydroxide yogurt was lower than that of ferrous lactate besides that of the control group. Judging by the acidity, count of lactic acid bacteria, value of TBA, co-precipitation ferric hydroxide has no obvious impact on these indicators. So co-precipitation ferric hydroxide used as an iron enhancer added to yogurt was practicable.