Presence of nitrate and nitrite in cow forage, plasma, and milk

Even if plants can contain high levels of nitrate and nitrite, milk and dairy products are not described as sources of these anions. The purpose of this paper was to measure the concentrations of nitrate and nitrite in forage, cow blood, and milk.The results show that the nitrate ratio of milk to plasma is very low, suggesting that milk contamination with nitrate is unlikely to occur. This finding also proves the lack of an active transport mechanism to transfer nitrate from blood to milk. The nitrite anion almost disappears from milk through an enzymatic conversion; usually levels of μg l−1 were measured.