Investigation of Cadmium level in cow's raw milk from different regions of Iran

  Abstract: During June to October 2009, 109 raw whole milk were collected from milk tankers arriving at 12 dairy plants in different Iranian regions contain Isfahan, Tabriz, Sanandaj, Tehran, Yazd, Shiraz, Ghom, Ahvaz, Yazd, Mashhad, Rasht, and Kerman and analyzed by the graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. The mean recovery of the analytical method at 10, 20, 30 and 40 ng/ml was 93.84 ±1.8%. The mean level and standard deviation of cadmium obtained from 109 samples was 0.0059 mg/l and a 0.0033mg/l, respectively. The results of this study showed that the mean concretion of cadmium in raw milk samples was lower than the maximum permitted level in Codex, although cadmium concentration of samples 9.17% was higher than the maximum permitted level in Codex (0.01mg/l). Significant differences in the cadmium concentration were observed between milk samples analyzed in different cities (P= 0.00). Four sets of the samples, for Tehran, Isfahan, Ahvaz and Ghom seemed to show a higher level of contamination and need for further studies.