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

Abstract

Due to the accelerated growth of the world population, the need for food has increased. Due to the differentiated climatic factors that Ecuador has, the usage of pesticides and fertilizers has increased at an alarming rate, in search of increasing the productivity of crops, which results in an accumulation of residues in food and soil. In this study, the search for concentrations of metals and ions from fertilizers in four high-consumption products will be limited to INIAP Cecilia and Chaucha Amarilla potatoes, Kidney Tomato and Paiteña Onion found in markets and supermarkets. The metals were determined by using inductively coupled plasma spectrometry with a mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). For 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 at the highest concen - trations. 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.