CHEMOMETRIC STUDIES ON MINOR AND TRACE-ELEMENTS IN COWS MILK

In raw milk nine minor and trace elements (Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mo, Cd and Pb) were determined in the dissolved ash by means of atomic ab sorption spectrometry and electrothermal atomization in a graphite fur nace. The application of linear principal component analysis to the da ta matrix has permitted the reduction of the number of variables to fo ur principal components accounting for 74% of the total variability. T he two-dimensional plot of the scores (the milk samples) for the first principal components has pointed out a differentiation according to t he two kinds of cow's feeding. Successively, the technique of linear d iscriminant analysis has fully confirmed the separation between the tw o types of milk.