Fecal Excretion of Iron and Tin by Men Fed Stored Canned Foods

Abstract

Packaged military rations (C ration) were stored at 1° and 37°c. for twenty months prior to feeding to human subjects for successive twenty-four-day periods. Storage for an excessive time at the unusually elevated temperature increased the iron and tin content of the ration from 30 to 80 and 200 p.p.m. (dry solids), respectively. Fecal excretion accounted for all the tin ingested, and for about 80 per cent of the iron from a control diet and the ration stored at cold temperatures (1°c.) but only for 54 per cent of the 64 mg daily intake of iron provided by the ration stored at 37°c. A relationship of iron absorption to marginal pyridoxine intake is suggested.