Transfer of cadmium from ewe milk to cream and to rennet and lactic curds.

Milks from control ewes and from ewes fed with a diet containing added cadm ium were skimmed and then transformed into cheese curds either by rennet co agulation or by lactic acidification with a culture of Lactococcus lactis. Cadmium contents ranged from less than 0.2 to 0.5 mu g.L-1 in the control m ilk and from 4.8 to 21.4 mu g.L-1 in the contaminated milk. Cadmium content s were always higher in the cream than in the whole milk: the concentration factor was 3.0 +/- 1.1 in the treated ewes' milk. In the rennet curds obta ined from the skim-milk of the treated ewes, the cadmium levels were 3.6 to 7.6 times higher than in the original milk. For the lactic curds, the conc entration factor ranged from 2.1 and 3.1. The fresh curd cadmium contents r eached 4.7 +/- 2.1 mu g.kg(-1) when obtained from control milks, which sugg ested a contamination by the cadmium during the cheese making. (C) Inra/Els evier, Paris.