## 1 Introduction  
Elemental food composition data are of high importance both for consumers and for health professionals, and their need is highlighted by food labeling legislation [1]. The mineral composition of food samples depends on many factors, including their preparation, storage, packaging and transport. Foods contain metals that are essential for human health, such as Mg, Cu, Fe and Zn [2]. However, due to environmental pollution from urban, industrial and agricultural emissions, toxic metal such as Pb and Cd may be also present in food samples since they can accumulate along the food chain [3]. Candies such as lollipops, hard candies and jellies are food products that are widely sold in retail stores and they are consumed by a wide and heterogenous group of consumers, ranging from small children to elderly people [4, 5]. The main constituent of these products is sugar, which is typically incorporated in the form of sucrose syrup and/or glucose, while they also contain other ingredients such as aromas or artificial food colorants to make them attractive, especially for children [5, 6]. For the preparation of jellies, a gelling agent (i.e., gelatin) is also employed [6]. Currently, there is ongoing research regarding the incorporation of natural ingredients (e.g., antioxidants) into candies and jellies [5] and the development of healthier alternatives [7]. Similar to other food products, candies and jellies may contain a plethora of different elements that derive from the raw materials used in their preparation, contamination from the equipment, as well as contamination from the environment during storage and transport [8]. The migration of toxic elements from candy packages to the final product can result in contamination of the candies with toxic metals such as Pb and Cr [4]. As a result, it is critical to develop simple, rapid, accurate and precise methodologies for the determination of the elemental composition of these food products. Among the different spectroscopic techniques that are used for the elemental analysis of food samples are flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS), electrothermal atomic absorption spectroscopy (ETAAS), cold vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy (CV-AAS), inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) [1,8,9]. Until now, ICP-AES has been found to be a powerful analytical instrument for the assessment of the elemental composition of a wide variety of food and beverages samples, including fruits and vegetables [10], legumes [11], savory snack products [8], coffee [12], alcoholic drinks [13], milks [12], vegan milks and oils [14], rice [15,16], cereals [16], nuts and seeds [17], fruit juices [18], seaweeds [19,20], etc. Typically, sample preparation is required in order to make the food sample compatible with the ICP-AES system. Among the different sample preparation methods that are used for the elemental analysis of food samples are dry ashing, wet ashing, conventionally heating procedures, microwave-assisted digestion, autoclave digestion, etc. [2,8]. [PERSON] et al. [4] studied the levels of various metals in candy packages and candies, including lollipops, chocolates, chewing gums and jelly samples. For this purpose, candy samples were subjected to microwave-assisted digestion using 9.0 mL of nitric acid (HNO\({}_{3}\)) and 1.0 mL of hydrogen peroxide (H\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{2}\)) as the digestion mixture. Among the examined elements were Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn. [PERSON] et al. [21] proposed an atomic absorption spectroscopic method for the determination of Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni and Zn in candies and chocolate. In this approach, sample digestion was performed using 9 mL of nitric acid and 3 mL of perchloric acid. The digestion mixture was heated at 120 \({}^{\circ}\)C for about 5 h, followed by wet ashing for 18 h. Another study for the determination of metals (i.e., Zn, Pb, Ni and Cd) in candies was proposed by [PERSON] at al. [22].