Preface to the Application

As important dairy products, fermented milk and sterilized milk have attracted much attention regarding their safety. Heavy metals such as lead, chromium, arsenic, and mercury in the environment may migrate into dairy products through feed, water sources, and other channels, posing health risks upon long-term intake. Currently, strict limit standards for heavy metal contents in dairy products have been established both domestically and internationally. Hengsheng Mass Spectrometry’s ICP-MS instruments have gained wide application in environmental and food testing fields due to their high sensitivity, rapid multi-element analysis capability, and broad elemental coverage. The newly upgraded iQuad 2300 ICP-MS extends the analytical dynamic range to over 10 orders of magnitude, enabling simultaneous determination of major elements (Na, K, Ca, etc.) and trace elements in milk samples. Its improved collision/reaction cell technology effectively eliminates polyatomic interferences in complex matrices, ensuring the accuracy of detection results. The instrument adopts market-leading stable plasma technology and, combined with an optional ultra-high matrix sampling system, can handle samples with total dissolved solids content of up to 25%. Together with the discontinuous sampling function of the high-sample-throughput introduction system, the 2300 ICP-MS becomes an ideal choice for routine high-throughput multi-element detection in food samples. This study follows the first method of the national standard GB 5009.268-2016, using the TOPEX+ microwave digester manufactured by EYELA to digest samples, and employs the ICP-MS 2300 produced by Hengsheng Mass Spectrometry. Through the intelligent electronic dilution function, it can accurately quantify four harmful elements in a single injection without mode switching, achieving high-throughput and precise analysis of elements with both high and low contents.

Conclusion of the Article

 In this study, the Hengsheng MS 2300 ICP-MS was used to systematically detect heavy metal elements in milk samples. The results indicate that this technology is fully applicable to the field of dairy safety monitoring. The excellent performance demonstrated by the instrument makes it an ideal choice for routine laboratory testing. Its high sensitivity easily meets the requirements of the strictest food safety standards, providing reliable quantitative results even for harmful elements present at extremely low levels. In practical applications, this method exhibits significant technical advantages: the wide dynamic range design allows simultaneous determination of major nutritional elements and trace contaminants, greatly enhancing detection efficiency; advanced anti-interference technology effectively overcomes the analytical challenges posed by the complex matrix of milk, ensuring the authenticity and reliability of the data. These technical features make the ICP-MS method particularly suitable for critical环节 such as raw material acceptance, process control, and finished product release in dairy production enterprises. It also provides strong technical support for food safety inspections and market monitoring by government regulatory departments. With the continuous increase in detection requirements, by further optimizing the sample pretreatment process, this method can be extended to quality and safety monitoring of more dairy products, providing continuous technical support for the healthy development of the dairy industry.

Highlights of the Solution

Detection was performed using the Kinetic Energy Discrimination (KED) mode of iQuad 2300, which significantly reduces matrix polyatomic ion interferences. Aiming at the characteristic of coexisting high-content nutritional elements (such as K and Na) and trace heavy metals in dairy products, the unique electronic dilution technology of iQuad 2300 was used to set differentiated dilution parameters for target elements, enabling simultaneous determination of nutritional elements and heavy metal contents in a single injection. The ICP-MS was optimized using the automatic tuning function in the ICP-MS software. The operating conditions of the instrument and the electronic dilution parameters for each element are shown in Table 2.

Article Download