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Background & objectives: The aim of this study was to compare knowledge of mothers with school-age children on nutritional value and consumption of milk and dairy products in wealthy and poor urban areas of Rasht city.

Methods: In this casul-comparision study 182 mothers with school-age children (86 from wealthy and 96 from poor urban areas) were asked to complete a questionnaire of knowledge on nutritional value of milk and dairy. Obtained data were analyzed by student t for independent samples, ANOVA, Pearson correlation and regression analysis using SPSS-16 software.

Results: There is significant difference in knowledge about milk and dairy between mothers living in wealthy and poor regions (p<0.01). Knowlede of the women with different educational levels on milk and dairy products was significantly different (p<0.01). There are significant positive correlations between the three study variables (age, marriage, and number of children) and mothers' knowledge on nutritional value of milk and dairy products (p<0.01). The result of regression analysis showed that the age can predict variance of the mothers' knowledge on nutritional value of milk and dairy products.

Conclusions: Since nutritional habits and patterns formed in childhood affect the nutritional behaviors in later years, and knowledge and attitude of mothers have important role in transfering of healthy/unhealthy nutritional habits especially on milk and dairy products consumtion; the necessity of training programs of mothers about proper eating habits, especially milk and dairy products is emphesized. This will help to build healthy nutritional habits from childhood and promote the wellbeing of future generations.

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Background & Objectives: Since milk and its products constitute an important part of human diet in many parts of the world; effective procedures should be applied to improve quality and quantity of milk production, quality of its composition and milk hygiene and to minimize milk pollutants. This study aimed to determine concentration of lead and cadmium in milk and some dairy products of Hamadan markets and compare with international standard levels.

Methods: In the present cross-sectional study, 190 samples of raw cow milk, raw sheep milk, raw goat milk, yogurt and white cheese (made from cow milk) produced in dairy product manufacturing centers of Hamadan province were collected during 2013-2014. Lead and cadmium residues in the samples were examined by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy.

Results: In the present study, lead levels were not higher than the licensed level and in all samples cadmium were within standard ranges. Among dairy products, the highest and lowest average concentration of lead were found in white cheese (0.325 ppm) and yogurt (0.136 ppm); respectively. In raw milk samples the highest average concentrations of lead and cadmium were found in goat raw milk with 0.223 ppm and 0.006 ppm; respectively.

Conclusion: Comparing lead and cadmium concentrations in the samples with Codex (2000) standard revealed that average lead and cadmium levels are lower than the permissible levels. The average lead in any of the samples was not higher than the allowable concentration and cadmium amount was within the permissible range for all the samples.

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Background & objectives: Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites of fungi and one of the most important types of mycotoxins identified as a carcinogen for humans. The aim of this study was to determine the level of aflatoxin M1 in milk production of dairy factories in east Azerbaijan province by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).
Methods: In this study, 45 samples of pasteurized milk were randomly collected from dairy factories in East Azerbaijan province between August and October 2015. Then, the amount of aflatoxin M1 in each sample was determined by HPLC method equipped with fluorescence detection after immunoaffinity purification.
Results: The results showed that 47% of the tested samples were contaminated with aflatoxin M1 toxin. No detectable contamination was observed in 53% of the samples. The contamination range was between 1-43.27 ng/L, and none of the samples had contamination higher than the EU legal limit (50 ng/L). There was a significant difference in aflatoxin M1 contamination in pasteurized milk samples of different dairy factories (p˂0.05). 
Conclusion: The low level of aflatoxin M1 in the studied samples can be satisfactory in terms of public health at present. However, contamination level close to the standard limit was observed in 3% of the samples and requires continuous monitoring and more detailed studies such as the type of animal feed. In addition to maintaining the hygiene of livestock and dairy factories, it is necessary to plan to reduce the amount of aflatoxin M1 in milk and dairy products.