Prevalence of some dangerous heavy metal residues and aflatoxins in milk and some dairy products

Abstract EN

Heavy metal residues and aflatoxins production in milk and dairy products cause a public health hazards on human health.

Therefore, One hundred and twenty samples of raw cow’s milk and some dairy products including (Cream, Cooking butter, Kareish cheese, Damietta cheese, and yoghurt) 20 of each type, were collected from different supermarkets and groceries, in Alexandria city, Egypt.

The obtained results showed that the mean values of lead, Cadmium and Aluminum were (0.33±0.049, 0.18±0.037, 0.28±0.071, 0.27±0.021, 0.26±0.032 and 0.29±0.043); (0.039±0.007, 0.041±0.007, 0.042±0.011, 0.030±0.004, 0.075±0.013 and 0.044±0.008), and (0.031±0.003, 0.413±0.101, 0.274±0.054, 0.334±0.118, 0.21±0.091 and 0.131±0.027) ppm in the examined raw cow’s milk, cream, cooking butter, Kareish cheese, Damietta cheese and yoghurt, respectively.

From the other hand, Copper and zinc values were determined in all examined samples.

Regarding aflatoxins, AFM1 were detected in raw cow milk, cream, cooking butter, Kareish cheese and Damietta cheese with mean values of 0.078±0.05, 0.42±0.27, 0.33±0.09, 0.29±0.09, and 0.46±0.16 ppb, respectively and failed to be detected in examined yoghurt samples.

AFM2 failed to be detected in examined raw cow’s milk and yoghurt samples.

Public health significances of existing metals and aflatoxins as well as the suggested control measures should applied to minimize the hazardous effect of these pollutants were discussed.