Characterization of the content of anions and metals of potatoes, tomatoes and onions marketed in Cuenca, Ecuador to obtain a classification model

Abstract

Due to the accelerated growth of the population, the need for food has increased, this added to the differentiated climatic factors that Ecuador has, causes users to use pesticides and fertilizers in an alarming way, in search of increasing the productivity of crops, exploit an accumulation of residues in food and soil. In this study, the concentrations of metals and ions from fertilizers in four high-consumption products will be limited: INIAP Cecilia and Chaucha Amarilla potatoes, Kidney Tomato and Paiteña Onion found in markets and supermarkets. The metals were determined by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry with mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) and the ions through a UV-visible spectrophotometer. The values ​​found were within the norm. Differences were found between the metal content of the potato between peel and pulp where the latter will appear the highest concentrations. Multivariate statistics showed that the samples are grouped by the planting site and not the type of sample, which shows the importance of the soil and the cultivation process. The generation of a classification model for fed products with the analyzed parameters is discussed.