Parsaei et al. 2019 - Cadmium, lead, and mercury in raw milk
Parsaei and colleagues measured cadmium, lead, and mercury in 1100 raw milk samples from multiple animal species. The study is routeable for milk and dairy occurrence evidence because it reports ppb concentrations by species, age, and season. It found the highest concentrations in raw bovine milk and seasonal elevation in spring.
Key numbers
- Sample frame: 1100 bovine, ovine, caprine, buffalo, and camel milk samples.
- Overall mean concentrations: Cd 3.62 +/- 0.35 ppb, Pb 11.73 +/- 1.09 ppb, and Hg 4.35 +/- 0.42 ppb.
- Overall ranges: Cd 0.06-14.03 ppb, Pb 0.12-33.62 ppb, and Hg 1.03-10.38 ppb.
- Raw bovine milk had the highest reported means: Cd 4.05 +/- 0.38 ppb, Pb 12.36 +/- 1.21 ppb, and Hg 5.76 +/- 0.53 ppb.
- Milk from animals at least five years old and samples collected in spring had the highest concentrations in the authors’ analysis.
Methods (brief)
The authors used graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry for Cd, Pb, and Hg in raw milk. Mean recoveries were 93% for Cd, 96% for Pb, and 88% for Hg.
Implications
Certification: Supports raw milk and dairy context, especially seasonal and species variance.
Courses: Useful for teaching seasonal variance and animal-species differences in dairy metals.
App: Can inform dairy ingredient priors with geography and raw-milk caveats.
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Verification notes
Mercury is total mercury. The source should not be used as methylmercury evidence.
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.
| Commit | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0edf3ce | 2026-05-29 | ingest auto-fetched 2026-05-29 0000 batch 2: 10 source pages |