DETERMINATION OF MAJOR AND MINOR ELEMENTS IN MILK THROUGH ICP-AES

Milk products are a very important human nutrient since their consumption has increased in recent years. Good quality measurements are essential to control and maintain milk products and processes quality, both in manufacturing, trade and in research. The presence of toxic elements in powdered and liquid milk may create significant health problems for people. The aim of this paper was to determine the content of major and minor elements in different milk samples, sold in major supermarket chains in Romania. Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) was used for the quantitative determination of elements in this matrix. Analyses were performed after the chemical mineralization of the samples with nitrogen acid. Detection limits ranged from 0.4 to 7.03 ng/g.