Overview
Almášiová and colleagues measured 17 elements, including arsenic, cadmium, lead, nickel and antimony, by ICP-OES in raw sheep milk, whey and fresh sheep cheese sampled every two weeks over one lactation at a single farm in the Spiš region of eastern Slovakia, an area burdened by long-term mining and industry. Table 2 gives mean ± SD and median per product, and the paper models intakes for adults and children.
Key numbers
- Lead: milk 0.04 ± 0.03, whey 0.09 ± 0.20, fresh cheese 0.13 ± 0.09 mg/kg; all above the 0.020 mg/kg EU limit for milk (Table 2; Discussion).
- Arsenic: milk 0.46 ± 0.22, whey 0.24 ± 0.17, cheese 0.73 ± 0.29 mg/kg (Table 2).
- Cadmium was not detected in any sample (LOD 0.00005 mg/kg) (Table 2).
Methods (brief)
Homogenized samples of 1 to 2 g were digested by microwave with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide and analyzed by axial ICP-OES (Agilent 720). Detection limits are listed per element; the method was checked against certified reference materials, but recoveries are not printed.
Evidence Fitness
One farm in a contaminated area (site context: mining), so the results are not representative of retail cheese. Selenium values lie below the stated selenium detection limit, and arsenic values are high for milk products measured by ICP-OES. Arsenic is total arsenic. Fresh farm sheep cheese is close to fromage-frais in style but is a contaminated-site proxy for fromage-frais and cheese-pizza, which are not linked.