Anais do Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciências de Alimentos
Anais do 14 SLACA - Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciência de Alimentos

With vast worldwide consumption, dairy products are not free from the presence of heavy metals, which can be bioaccumulated in milk and consequently be present in cheeses. This study aimed to evaluate the heavy metals (Cr, Cu, As, Cd, Hg, Pb) in Brazilian artisanal cheese (= 40, Senno, Araxá, Marajó, Colonial, Caipira, Serrano, Mantiqueira and Bicas da Serra), and to carry out a health risk assessment. The analysis were performed using through Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry with five repetitions. Low levels of chromium, copper, cadmium and lead were identified in all types of analyzed cheese. Only Mantiqueira cheese had a small amount of arsenic. No mercury was identified in any cheese. The metals with the greatest variation among the cheeses were copper (91 μg/kg in Senno cheese and 964 μg/kg in Caipira cheese) and lead (6 μg/kg in Marajó cheese and 274 μg/kg in Mantiqueira cheese). The estimated daily intakes (EDI), ranged from 5.17 x 10-6 to 1.48x10-4 mg/kg bw per day (arsenium and copper, respectively). For the Target Hazard Quotients (THQ) the values ranged from 6.89 10-13 to 5.49 10-7, respectively), being all the values <1, what suggests that the artisanal cheeses do not have human health risks (non-carcinogenic) associated with long term exposure to chemical pollutants. The findings suggest that the Brazilian artisanal cheeses do not have a potential risk potential health risk through their consumption.