Dietary Exposure and Health Risk Assessment of Selected Toxic and Essential Metals in Various Flavored Dairy Products.

Children are strongly frequent consumers of flavored dairy pro ducts chosen and encouraged by their mothers to achieve nutritional requirements. Therefore, this study was implemented to assess flavored dairy products (UHT milk, pasteurized milk, milk powder, yogurt, drinking yogurt, and ice cream) with two diversified flavors for each product for their trace element levels (Al, Pb, Hg, Cd, As, Sb, Zn, Fe, Cu, B, Se, Ni, Co, Cr, and Mn) using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (ICP-MS/MS). Zn, Cu, Fe, Mn, Co, and Al were detectable in all examined samples, but they were found to be free of mercury and cadmium. Essential elements (Zn, Cu, Fe, Co, Cr, Mn, B) and Al were maximally determined in chocolate milk powder with mean values of 20.73 ± 0.703, 6.832 ± 0.114, 17.9 ± 4.75, 0.299 ± 0.026, 1.279 ± 0.52, 7.958 ± 0.201, 3.51 ± 0.431, and 4.785 ± 1.590 mg/kg, respectively, while Ni, Pb, and As were utmost measured in strawberry yogurt at 1.591 ± 1.746, 0.09 ± 0.036, and 0.037 ± 0.031 mg/kg, respectively. The Pb value concentrations in samples of strawberry milk powder and pasteurized milk exceeded the regulative limit permitted by the European Commission (0.02 mg/kg). Regarding estimated daily intake (EDI) of toxic metals, strawberry drinking yogurt showed Pb (0.0046 mg/kg/day) and Al (0.164 mg/kg/day) twice daily intakes for toddlers surpassed the tolerable daily intake (TDI). Therefore, the consumption of strawberry yogurt for toddlers showed a possibility of non-carcinogenic risk expressed as THQ and carcinogenic risk (CR) in minimum to maximum values of 1.870-3.740 and 8.40 × 10-1.68 × 10 respectively. The contamination of flavored dairy products should be of greater concern as it is deemed a health crisis. Restrictive control measures must be applied starting from hygienic measures related to dairy animals, harvesting, and preparation of unprocessed materials used in the manufacturing of dairy plants, as the steps of processing and raw material quality have the greatest attention and influence on metal concentrations variability.