To investigate the pollution status of eight harmful elements in milk fan and milk cakes. Milk fan and milk cake were sampled from representative farmers’ markets and supermarkets in some districts or counties of a certain city. The samples were digested by a wet digestion method using graphite, and eight harmful elements including arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, boron, aluminum and barium in the digested samples were simultaneously detected by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and quantified by an internal standard method. Neither milk fan nor milk cake samples were found to be contaminated by mercury or cadmium, and the contamination levels of boron, arsenic, barium and lead was relatively low; however, the milk fan samples were seriously polluted by aluminum and chromium, and the contamination level of barium in milk cakes was relatively high. Both milk fan and milk cake samples contained chromium, barium and lead, and the contamination level of the former was higher than that of the latter. Accordingly, relevant departments should strengthen supervision over milk fan and milk cake workshops, standardize the production processes, strictly control the potential pollution links, and strengthen supervision over pollution in the production process to ensure product quality and safety.