The effect of food processing on the bioaccessibility of cadmium and micronutrients from whole wheat porridge

Background and Objectives Wheat porridge contributes to the intake of micronutrients but can also be a route of the toxic heavy metal, cadmium. This study aimed to determine the effect of processing on micronutrients, cadmium dialyzability, and cellular bioaccessibility. Findings Cadmium (0.21%), magnesium (0.19%), iron (0.17%), and zinc (0.07%) presented low bioaccessibility from raw whole wheat flour. Boiling and germination reduced phytic acid content ( p < .001) but failed to improve mineral bioaccessibility compared to raw flour. Fermentation increased the bioaccessibility of cadmium (2.3‐fold), magnesium (8.3‐fold), iron (2.2‐fold), and zinc (10.4‐fold) ( p < .001). Dialyzability only presented a valid correlation with bioaccessibility for cadmium ( r = 0.68; p < .001). Conclusions Food processing did not decrease cadmium bioaccessibility from wheat porridge. Dialyzability was a suitable method to estimate the cellular bioaccessibility of cadmium, but not other beneficial elements. Significance and Novelty Strategies to decrease cadmium bioaccessibility from foods are still needed. However, based on these results, the dialyzability assay reported here could allow the rapid screening of wheat‐based foods for their cadmium bioaccessibility.