Statistical correlations between mineral element composition, product information and retail price of powdered cocoa beverages in Nigeria

A study of the mineral element composition, labelled product information and retail prices of 30 Nigerian made powdered cocoa beverages (PCBs) was carried out. The objective was to determine statistical correlations between retail price, mineral element composition and the practice of PCB manufacturers towards providing product information as an index of good manufacturing practice (GMP). The products were generally found to be rich sources of Ca and P. Fe, Cu and Cr were found in trace amounts. Most PCB sample had Pb content above the maximum permissible level of 1.0 μg/g, The calcium content correlated significantly with phosphorus content (r = 0.919, P < 0.01) and GMP score (r = 0.639, P < 0.01). Based on products’ mineral element composition, the use of some multivariate pattern recognition techniques successfully clustered the PCB brands into two main groups. The first group consisted mainly of unregistered samples with GMP scores ≤8 (maximum score = 12) while the second group consisted mainly of registered products with GMP scores ≥8. Based on the mineral element composition, the extreme positions of Pb and P in the clustering tree indicated that they are contaminant and nutritional supplements, respectively. Finally, the retail prices, Ca and P contents were shown to be reliable indices of GMP in PCBs.