ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS AND HEAVY METAL LEVELS IN SHEEP MILK AND ITS DAIRY PRODUCTS

Abstract

Milk and various dairy products are among the basic foods used in nutrition. However, milkand dairy products can contain many environmental pollutants such as pesticides, detergents, drugresidues, heavy metals that may pose technological risks and are dangerous for human health. The aimof this study is to reveal the change of the amounts of essential elements and heavy metals in sheep'smilk, yoghurt, buttermilk, and butter which are produced from the same milk. For this purpose, yoghurt,buttermilk, and butter were made from sheep's milk. Then, in milk and dairy products, Sodium (Na),Magnesium (Mg), Potassium (K), Manganese (Mn), Copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), Arsenic (As), Selenium (Se)), Cadmium (Cd), Lead (Pb) amounts were examined by ICP-MS. The amount of As, Cd, Pb in allsamples were determined under the limit of detection (LOD). The amounts of Na, Mg, K, Mn, Cu, Zn,Se in milk were determined as 785, 92, 1537, 30,8, 73,5, 2683,5, 381,5 ppb, respectively. The amountsof Na, Mg, K, Mn, Cu, Zn, Se in yogurt were determined as 554,5, 121,5, 1516,5, 29,3, 71,5, 3692, 405ppb, respectively. The amounts of Na, Mg, K, Mn, Cu, Zn, and Se in buttermilk were determined as40175, 56,5, 553,5, 111,5, 1230, 2506,5, 447 ppb, respectively. The amounts of Na, Mg, K, Mn, Cu, Zn,Se in butter were determined as 98,2, 31,7, 223,1, 10,1, 24,6, 203,5, 282,5 ppb, respectively. Accordingto these data, changes in the amount of essential elements were observed when milk was transformedinto its products. It was determined that there were no heavy metals in sheep milk and products grownin this region.