Atomic absorption spectrophotometry

Atomic absorption spectrophotometry is an alternative term for atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), the workhorse technique for measuring mineral and heavy-metal content in foods. The older, longer term appears in legacy literature, instrument manuals, and some regulatory texts, but both names describe the same method: a monochromatic light source at an element-specific wavelength is passed through the sample after atomization, and the absorbed light reveals each element’s concentration. Food laboratories rely on AAS for heavy-metal screening of contaminants such as lead, cadmium, and arsenic, and for verifying mineral nutrition labelling. Analysts encountering the longer name in older documents should treat it as identical to AAS.