Abstract: Microwave digestion- inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) method was adopted for the determinations of 6 kinds of trace elements in yak meat. The detection limit of each element is from 0.0005 to 0.0120 mg/L, the relative standard deviation is from 1.50% to 4.25%, and the recovery ratio of spiked sample is from 98.55% to 102.27%. These results showed that the microwave digestion combined with ICP-OES is a sensitive method for the determination of trace elements in meat, and also indicats that yak meat contains Cu 1.41 mg/kg, Zn 18.70 mg/kg, Ni 0.73 mg/kg, Mn 0.43 mg/kg, Mo 0.85 mg/kg, and Co 0.29mg/kg, 6 kinds of essential elements for human.

Key words: microwave digestion, inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry, yak, trace element