Heavy Metal Residues in Milk and Milk Products and Their Detection Method

Milk and milk products are an essential part of the human daily diet, and their consumption is steadily increasing. Milk is regarded as a complete food because it contains all of the macronutrients including protein, carbohydrates, fat and vitamins. Milk also has a high concentration of mineral elements (metals) such as sodium, potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium, selenium, copper and zinc. They are critical for proper body growth and maintenance but excess in these metals, particularly, heavy metals cause disturbances and pathological conditions. People nowadays are concerned about food safety issues involving microbial, chemical and physical hazards. Heavy metal residues such as cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg) pose a chemical hazard. These are the main contaminants. Heavy metals are any metallic chemical elements with a relatively high density (5 g/cc) whose levels must be monitored. Atomic absorption spectroscopy can be used to estimate the heavy metal contamination in milk and milk products.