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Investigation of melamine and cyanuric acid concentration in several brands of liquid milk and its non-carcinogenic risk assessment in adults and infants

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Abstract

In this study, the melamine and cyanuric acid concentration of widely used milk brands and the probability of non-carcinogenic risk of the brands for adults and infants were investigated. These values were 1.37 mg/L, 1.10 mg/L, and 1.09 mg/L, which corresponded to creamy sterilized sample, high-fat (creamy) pasteurized sample, and low-fat (less-creamy) pasteurized sample, respectively. Similarly, the highest amount of cyanuric acid occurred in brand A with the values of 0.79 mg/L, 0.65 mg/L, and 0.64 mg/L, which was reported in the same samples mentioned for melamine. The HQ (Hazard Quotient) of melamine in the brands of A, B, C and D for adults was 0.0025, 0.0011, 0.0006 and 0.0008 respectively. These values for infants were reported as 2.2280, 0.9444, 0.5714 and 0.6714 respectively. The risk probability of melamine for adults was less than 1. However, the HQ in brand A for infants was greater than 1 (2.380), which indicate the high probability of non-carcinogenic risk. Furthermore, the HI (Hazard Index) values of the brands of A, B, C and D for infants were 2.7913, 1.1737, 0.7067 and 0.838, respectively. The simultaneous melamine and cyanuric acid in the brands A and B in for infants increase the non-carcinogenic risk probability by approximately 2.8 and 1.2 times, respectively. The results revealed that the melamine and cyanuric acid concentrations in creamy milk samples (0.5%) were higher than in less-creamy milk samples (2.5%). Moreover, the amount of the compounds in sterilized milk samples was higher than pasteurized. In this study, a conversion factor (0.7) was proposed in order to find out the concentration of cyanuric acid in milk sample with the amount of melamine is known but the cyanuric acid concentration is unknown.

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Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in the manuscript and will be sent to the journal with a reasonable request.

Code availability

For experimental design, statistical analysis of data, optimization for removal efficiency of the total and fecal coliforms and imaging of response surfaces, SPSS software version 21 was used. Moreover, the data were analyzed by ANOVA in order to obtain the interactions between the process variables.

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Funding

This study has been funded by the Tehran University of Medical Sciences (Grant No.: 97-02-27-38033). The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by the mentioned center.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Food Safety and Hygiene, Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Roghayeh Abedini, Gholamreza Jahed Khaniki, Ebrahim Molaee Aghaee & Parisa Sadighara

  2. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Maziar Naderi

Authors
  1. Roghayeh Abedini
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  2. Gholamreza Jahed Khaniki
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  3. Maziar Naderi
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  4. Ebrahim Molaee Aghaee
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  5. Parisa Sadighara
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Contributions

RA conducted methodology, GJK carried out the conceptualization, MA conducted the supervision and EMA and PS performed the reviewing–revising and editing.

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Correspondence to Gholamreza Jahed Khaniki.

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Abedini, R., Khaniki, G.J., Naderi, M. et al. Investigation of melamine and cyanuric acid concentration in several brands of liquid milk and its non-carcinogenic risk assessment in adults and infants. J Food Sci Technol 60, 3054–3066 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-023-05814-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-023-05814-z

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