Determination of major and minor elements in dairy products through inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry after wet, partial digestion and neutron activation analysis

A wet partial digestion procedure using hydrochloric acid was investigated to determine the concentration of Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, P and Zn in dairy products by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP OES) technique. The results of this partial digestion were satisfactory and no loss of analytes was observed. A comparison of the results obtained from this methodology was carried out with the other results from dry ashing digestion and Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) technique that do not require pre-treatment procedure. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.