heavy metals

health risk assessment

milk

food safety

Toxic substances

Monitoring

Considering that pollutants can be transferred to the human body through food consumption, food safety is of great concern to the consumers. In order to evaluate the health risk of heavy metals to consumers by milk categories and consumer age groups via the ingestion of milk products, the contents of Pb, Cr, Cd, Cu, Al, Ni, Zn, and Co in fermented, sterilized, and modified milk samples collected from markets in Nanchang, China, were measured by ICP-MS, and the potential health risk was assessed by the method of target hazard quotients (THQ) and hazard index (HI). Results of this study showed that the contents of all studied elements, excluding Zn, were within the food safety limits. The mean daily exposures were estimated to be safe on comparison with the reference dose. However, total metal THQ (TTHQ) and HI values based on maximum exposure were larger than one for a baby age 0-3, which indicated that the long-term high consumption of milk products would result in high health risk for infants. The results also showed that the contribution of fermented milk to total THQ was larger than other milk products. Therefore, more attention should be paid to control the dietary intake of milk products by babies age 0-3, and we should monitor the potential risk caused by the ingestion of fermented milk.