Effect of Feeding Habits of Cows on Trace Element Contents of Some Dairy Products

Concentrations of selenium, copper, nickel, zinc, cadmium and lead contents of several typical Turkish dairy products were determined using Inductively Coupled Plasma -Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES). The order of the elements in the dairy products was determined to be Zn > Se >Ni >Pb > Cu > Cd. Additionally, the concentration ranges in these samples were found to be 0.003-79.7, 4.32-59.8, 0.1-31.53, 0.58-30.9, 0.22-9.89 and 0.008-1.89 μg 100g –1, respectively. In determination of the selenium content in selected dairy product, the highest values were found in the milk and white cheese, but lower values are observed in yogurt. In addition, the results show two kinds of dairy products (milk and white cheese) have as foods with high levels of nutritionally important trace elements such as Se and Zn. The results identify composition of these dairy products were within safety baseline levels for human consumption. Results obtained from this study also provided important information on safety and quality standards of local milk and milk products; cheese and yoghurts.