Minerals and Trace Elements in Some Italian Dairy Products

This work provides new data on the levels of some minerals and trace elements, important for their nutritional and/or toxicological properties, in some Italian dairy products in order to evaluate the contribution of this food group to the quality of the Italian diet. Ion exchange liquid chromatography with suppressed conductivity was used for the determination of the minerals (Na, K, Mg and Ca) and instrumental neutron activation analysis for the determination of the trace elements (Co, Cr, Fe, Rb, Se, Zn). The results obtained confirm the importance of the presence of cheese in the Italian diet to satisfy the recommended daily intake of Ca, while suggesting that special attention should be exerted in the choice of cheeses with a low content of Na in order to minimize the possible negative effects on blood pressure. Finally, the results identify two subgroups of cheeses, the stirred curd cheeses and the hard cheeses as foods with high levels of nutritionally important trace elements (i.e. Se, Zn, Fe, Co), moreover, the correlation found among the concentration levels of these elements in the stirred curd cheeses permits the utilization of these cheeses in the diet to improve the ingestion levels of these nutritionally important elements.