Davidov et al. 2019 - Heavy metals in cow milk in Serbia

Davidov and colleagues measured heavy metals in cow milk in Serbia. The study is routeable for dairy and milk occurrence because it reports mean element concentrations in milk and compares them with international recommendations. Lead was reported just above the cited recommended value.

Key numbers

• Highest average concentrations in cow milk were Fe 283.9 mg/kg, Zn 60.21 mg/kg, and Cu 4.404 mg/kg.
• Reported mean toxic or trace elements included As 0.058 mg/kg, Cd 0.01 mg/kg, Co 0.002 mg/kg, Cr 0.018 mg/kg, Mn 0.493 mg/kg, Ni 0.119 mg/kg, and Pb 0.08 mg/kg.
• The authors state that Pb was just above recommended values by the International Dairy Federation and Codex for cow milk.

Methods (brief)

Milk samples were collected during morning milking and analyzed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES; Thermo ICAP 6500 Duo) using EPA method 6010C. The reported detection limit was 0.005 ppm for all analytes. Results are total element concentrations in milk; arsenic and chromium are not speciated.

Implications

Certification: Supports cow-milk and dairy occurrence context, with Serbia-specific geography.

Courses: Useful for explaining milk as a transfer matrix from animal environment and feed.

App: Can inform dairy ingredient priors with non-US market caveats.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• Category 5: Beverages
• Milk and Dairy
• Lead
• Cadmium
• Arsenic, Total
• Chromium
• Nickel

Verification notes

The paper reports total As and total Cr. Do not route it to iAs or Cr(VI).

The paper contains an internal inconsistency on the lowest-concentration metals: the abstract states that “Cobalt and Lead” were the lowest at “less than 0.005 mg/kg,” but the Results, Discussion, and Figure 1 all give specific values of Co 0.002 mg/kg and Pb 0.08 mg/kg, and the Discussion explicitly notes Pb 0.08 mg/kg is “just above recommended values by International Dairy Federation.” The wiki page uses the Results/Discussion/Figure 1 values, which are the internally consistent set. The reported instrumental detection limit was 0.005 ppm, so Co at 0.002 mg/kg sits below the stated LOD and should be treated as <LOD context, not a defensible point estimate.

Page history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.