The number of kinds and the corresponding capacities of mineral elements in milk and dairy products are key criteria to evaluate their nutritional quality. Thus choosing an efficient, sensitive and rapid detection method for mineral elements is important to the research, production, and trade of dairy products. This paper first discussed the pretreatment method for digesting milk or diary products, and then made comparisons among different detection methods, including flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS), graphite furnace atomic absorption specteometry (GFAAS), hydride generation atomic absorption specteometry (HGAAS), atomic fluorescence spectrometric (AFS), atomic emission spectrometry (AES), inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrum (ICP—MS), enzyme-linked immunosorbnent assay (ELISA), neutron activation analysis (NAA), stripping voltammetry (SV), enzyme inhibition method (EIM). Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of various detection methods were shown to provide insights into the application, research and development of the mineral elements determination in milk and dairy products.