Overview
Basaran measured ten metals, including lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic, by ICP-MS in 66 retail milk and dairy products sold in Türkiye and estimated dietary exposure and hazard quotients. Aluminum was the most abundant element in most products. Lead, cadmium and mercury were very low, often below detection; arsenic was highest in yogurt.
Key numbers
- Packaged milk: lead 0.03 ± 0.08 µg/L, cadmium <LOD, mercury 0.01 ± 0.02 µg/L, arsenic 8 ± 12 µg/L (Table 3).
- Yogurt: lead 0.01 ± 0.02 µg/kg, cadmium 0.02 ± 0.07 µg/kg, arsenic 42 ± 37 µg/kg (Table 3).
- Ayran: lead 0.09 ± 0.15 µg/L, the highest lead mean of the six groups (Table 3).
- Children’s milk: cadmium 0.10 ± 0.15 µg/L, lead and mercury <LOD (Table 3).
Methods (brief)
One mL of each product was digested with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide in a closed microwave system and analyzed by ICP-MS (cadmium, mercury and lead without collision gas; other elements in helium KED mode), in triplicate. Two packages from different batches per product. LODs, LOQs and spike recoveries are reported only in Supplementary Table S3, which was not available. Liquids are reported per litre and yogurt per kilogram.
Evidence Fitness
A reasonable retail cross-section with modest group sizes (6 to 19 products) and no collection dates. Standard deviations are often larger than the means, reflecting many low or non-detect values. Results for liquids are per litre, so they are not directly comparable with mg/kg data. For the thin pages it was pulled for (reduced-fat milk, custard, fromage frais, cheese pizza, macaroni and cheese), this is a dairy ingredient proxy: milk fat level is not separated and none of those foods was measured.