Monitoring contamination of perchlorate migrating along the food chain to dairy products poses risks to human health

Assessments of human exposure to sodium perchlorate via dairy sources are limited. The current study applied untargeted metabolomics (LOD, 1.08-35.60 mu g L-1; LOQ, 2.54-90.58 mu g L-1; RSD < 6.2%) and proteomics methods by UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap HRMS to investigate the metabolic pathways and nutritional quality of goat milk contaminated with sodium perchlorate. Specifically, 11 metabolites including lactose (from 2.01 to 0.58 mg L-1), adenosine 5'-monophosphate (from 1.23 to 0.45 mg L-1), hypoxanthine (from 0.63 to 0.08 mg L-1), etc. and 3 crucial enzymes include alpha-lactalbumin, xanthine dehydrogenase and creatine kinase related to the quality traits of goat milk after sodium perchlorate treatment. Overall, except for spermidine, other related metabolites significantly decreased with the increase of sodium perchlorate concentration 0-160 mu g L-1 and storage time (4-12 h). Collectively, we provide previously uncharacterized goat milk nutritional quality degradation mechanism induced by sodium perchlorate and a reference to ensure its safe use in human health.

Automated summary

This study investigated the metabolic pathways and nutritional quality of goat milk contaminated with sodium perchlorate using untargeted metabolomics and proteomics methods. The results showed that the levels of several metabolites and crucial enzymes related to milk quality were altered after sodium perchlorate treatment, leading to a degradation in nutritional quality.