Overview
Kuznetsova and colleagues measured copper, zinc, and lead in seven dry milk infant-formula products labeled for infants from 6 months to 1 year. The study is direct powdered-formula occurrence evidence, but the paper reports product-level results by named commercial formula. Under the brand firewall, this page preserves only the category-level range and exceedance signal.
The source does not measure mercury or methylmercury despite appearing in a methylmercury research-pull folder.
Key numbers
All concentrations are reported by the source in mg/kg for dry formula.
| Analyte | Source comparison value | Observed range across 7 formulas | Samples above comparison value | Maximum excess reported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cu | 0.5 | 0.49-0.57 | 2/7 | 0.07 |
| Zn | 5 | 4.9-5.45 | 3/7 | 0.45 |
| Pb | 0.05 | 0.049-0.13 | 2/7 | 0.08 |
The paper’s abstract also cites maximum levels from Russian scientists for newborn milk as Pb 0.02 mg/kg, Cd 0.02 mg/kg, and As 0.05 mg/kg; cadmium and arsenic were not measured in the seven-sample formula panel.
Category-level findings from Tables 1-7:
| Finding | Value |
|---|---|
| Formula samples tested | 7 |
| Samples with no reported excess for any measured analyte | 4/7 |
| Samples with at least one reported excess | 3/7 |
| Samples with all three measured analytes at or below the source comparison values | 4/7 |
| Samples with Pb above 0.05 mg/kg | 2/7 |
| Samples with Cu above 0.5 mg/kg | 2/7 |
| Samples with Zn above 5 mg/kg | 3/7 |
Methods (brief)
The authors tested dry milk formula products using emission spectral analysis for rapid lead detection and atomic absorption spectroscopy for microelement determination. The method section states that 100-200 g portions were burned according to GOST 26929-86, with lead lines at lambda = 283.31 nm and lambda = 405.78 nm and comparison lines at lambda = 282.4 nm, 408.0 nm, and a doublet at 404.4 nm and 404.6 nm. The method-development work lowered detection limits relative to prior use of ISP-28 and ISP-30 spectrographs, and the authors state that the same approach can be applied to zinc and copper.
Microelements in milk were determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy using a Saturn-2 spectrophotometer after spraying the mineralized sample solution in air-acetylene flame. The paper describes calibration by solutions with known concentrations. Porcelain dishes and utensils were used during mixture and sample preparation to avoid contact with lead-containing glass.
Implications
This source contributes small-panel occurrence evidence for Pb, Cu, and Zn in follow-on powdered milk infant formula. It is most useful as a geographically mixed, non-US formula contamination signal and as method context for rapid lead detection in formula ash.
The source does not distinguish soy-based from non-soy formula in the HMTc row system, so it should remain broad powdered-formula context until row fit is resolved. The measured lead values are total lead in dry product; no basis conversion to prepared formula is made here. The source does not measure cadmium, arsenic, total mercury, methylmercury, or chromium species.
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Verification notes
- Identity check: DOI
10.15673/fst.v13i3.1476, raw handleRPMEHG_10-15673-fst-v13i3-1476, candidate cite-keykuznetsova2019-milk-infant-formulas-heavy-metals, and SHA-25647464cad14e973ae73ba061c3cf1bc702f4a970bb9f3cb338cd23c93676006efwere searched before creation; no existing clean post-2026-05-14 source page was found. - Full-PDF read performed from the seven-page journal PDF. Tables 1-7 were checked once from
pdftotext -layoutand a second time against rendered page images before commit. - Brand firewall: the source’s named commercial formula table is not reproduced. The page reports only category-level ranges and counts.
- HMTc firewall: page records source facts only; no certification threshold, percentile, or pass/fail calculation is derived from this source.
Update history
No substantive edit history is available in this build. The full commit record is available in git.