Overview
Al-Garory and Al-Kaabi measured iron, copper, lead, nickel and cadmium by flame AAS in cow and buffalo milk, cheese and cream from three areas of Basrah, Iraq. Nickel and cadmium were not detected in any sample. Lead was highest at Al-Zubair, and levels fell from milk to cheese to cream.
Key numbers
- Cow cheese, Al-Zubair: lead “.12 ± .02” mg.L-1; buffalo cheese, Al-Zubair: lead “.23 ± .01” mg.L-1 (Tables 1 and 2).
- Buffalo milk, Al-Zubair: lead “.67 ± .01” mg.L-1 (Table 2).
- Cow cheese across regions: lead 0.00 to 0.14, mean “0.04 ± 0.06 mg.L-1” (Discussion, p. 9).
- Nickel and cadmium not detected in any sample (Abstract; Results).
Methods (brief)
Samples were oven-dried at 60 °C, 2 g digested in nitric and perchloric acid, and read by flame AAS. No reference material, blanks, recovery or detection limits are reported.
Evidence Fitness
All results, including those for solid cheese and cream, are labelled mg per liter even though samples were dried and weighed, so they cannot be compared with mg/kg data and are stored unconverted. Sample counts per cell are inconsistent (n = 15 per site in the tables, n = 5 in the figures), and the tables and figures disagree on SD versus SE. Cheese here is a proxy for the macaroni and cheese page, not that dish.