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Selenium Content of Foods¹

Human Nutrition Research Division, Agricultural Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland 20705

The selenium content of a wide variety of foods representing a cross section of the American diet was determined by fluorometry. Most fruits and vegetables contained quantities of selenium less than 0.01 µg/g. Exceptions were garlic, mushroom, and radish containing 0.25, 0.13 and 0.04 µg/g, respectively. Grain products varied widely in their selenium content with cornflakes containing as low as 0.025 µg/g and barley cereal as high as 0.66 µg/g. Whole wheat flour, whole wheat bread and brown sugar contained two to four times more selenium than did white flour, white bread and white sugar. Of the milk products assayed, table cream was the lowest in selenium and skim milk the highest (0.005 vs. 0.05 µg/g). Dried skim milk powder samples ranged from 0.095 to 0.24 µg/g. Meat samples ranged from about 0.1 µg/g for chicken muscle to as high as 1.9 µg/g for pork kidney with most values between 0.2 and 0.5 µg/g. The content of seafood was generally higher, ranging from 0.4 to 0.7 µg/g. These values suggest that a diet well balanced in other nutrients is probably also nutritionally adequate with regard to selenium, although possible effects of cooking, processing, geographical variation and biological availability remain to be investigated.

Manuscript received 29 May 1970.

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