Detection of adulteration in milk: A review

Abstract

Milk is a wholesome nutritious dairy product and is consumed by a majority of the population worldwide for drinking as such, as well as via dairy products. However, the practice of adulteration of milk invariably reduces its quality and may introduce hazardous substances into the dairy supply chain jeopardising consumers’ health. Various instances of adulteration of milk have been reported globally, wherein substances such as extraneous water, foreign proteins, whey proteins, melamine and urea, vegetable or animal fats, plus many minor constituents of milk fat have been added as potential adulterants in milk and milk products. This review focusses on the different methods of detection of these adulterants in milk using techniques such as DSC, RP-HPLC, LC-GC, HPTLC, immunoassays: CE, ELISA, FAMPST, FTIR, NIR spectroscopy, PAGE, IEF, DNA-based methods and MALDI-MS that have been developed and employed for the last 25 years. The combination of advanced IR spectroscopy and chemometrics provides a powerful tool for quality and authenticity analysis of milk. An electronic tongue is an easy and economic tool for the detection of caprine milk adulterations with bovine milk. Biosensors having the ability to furnish real-time signals have been developed for the detection of urea in milk. An attempt has been made to give a clear understanding of the most suitable methods for the determination of various sources of adulteration.