Iron availability from infant food supplements.

Radioiron absorption tests are performed in human volunteer subjects to measure iron absorption from five infant food supplements. These products included corn-soya-milk, corn-soy blend, wheat-soy blend, wheat protein concentrate blend, and whey-soy drink mix. In iron replete adult males, mean percentage absorption ranged from 0.6 to 1.4%. By relating these results to absorption from a reference dose of inorganic iron, it was estimated that iron-deficient infants would absorb between 1.7 and 4.1% of the iron contained in the infant foods. These results indicate that this fortification iron is poorly absorbed, and probably supplies only about half of the daily iron requirement for iron deficient children between 6 months and 3 yr of age.