Iodine Content of Dairy Milk in France in 1983 and 1984

Iodine concentrations were determined in 848 samples of milk from tanks of 537 dairy factories collected in 1983 and 1984 during winter and summer. Industrial processing, like pasteurization, UHT sterilization and spray-drying, had no effect on iodine concentrations. Of the samples of bovine milk, 94.7% ranged between 10 to 250 μg/kg. Iodine in bovine milk averaged 97 and 93 μg/kg in the winter of 1983 and 1984, and 44 and 23 μg/kg in the summer of 1983 and 1984. The frequency of iodine concentrations above the 500 μg/kg limit was 0.5% in 1983 and 0.3% in 1984. Iodine in ovine milk varied from 116 to 1183 μg/kg. Of the ovine milk samples 53.3% were above 500 μg/kg. Thus the iodine content of milk, is not yet a health problem in France.