Analytical kits for detecting milk adulteration.
In food quality regulations, adulteration of a product is defined as the addition of any natural or synthetic substances in order to hide defects, to change or to confer properties that are not justified by their natural composition or production recipes.
Because of its particularities milk is considered to a food easy to be adulterated.
Milk adulteration can be grouped into two categories:
• milk adulteration in order to obtain or increase profit (the addition of water and / or replacement of natural fat)
• mask or prevent the installation of natural milk acidification
The most common fraud is the adulteration of milk by adding water, dilution masked by the addition of chemicals, such as NaCl, NH4NO3, NaNO3.
Substances used in adulteration have some common characteristics, such as:
• are easily soluble in milk
• are inexpensive and easy to be found
• have high specific weight (in small quantities significantly change the density)
• do not modify milk’sspecific organoleptic characteristics
• are similar to the components of milk (chlorine, nitrogen)
The most common adulteration is made by adding sodium chloride, carbonate and / or sodium bicarbonate, sodium nitrate and / or ammonium.
Advantages of using the analytical kits
Identification of substances added to milk for adulteration, require laboratory equipments, chemical reagents, qualified personnel and takes much time, making it difficult to investigate and demonstrate the adulteration in place (either we speak about farm or factory).
In recent years food control is increasingly based on development of the instrumental analysis methods that allow getting fast information about the analyzed product. Lately, milk processors have had to implement ISO 22000 system. This system requires the monitoring of the technological process and the determining of the critical points. Regardless of the product obtained by processing the milk, there is a first critical point at the reception of milk, stage when the detection of adulteration is absolutely necessary.
At industrial level, a simple, inexpensive and fast alternative for the detection of adulterated milk is using analytical kits. They will allow you to:
• ensure food safety by quickly controlling the content of nitrates, neutralizing substances and chlorides in the milk raw material and thus in the processed goods;
• improve the performance of the processing technology, with direct impact on specific consumption and utilities consumption (electricity, technological steam)
• reduce costs associated chemical analysis;
Analytical kits are analytical indicator strips, which present at one end an active area impregnated with specific coloring reagents.
There are several types of kits, all of them working on the principle of colorimetric methods (discoloration caused by the reaction between the substance to identify and identifying reagent). The main component of such a kit is represented by the active area of the analytical band, where the color reaction occurs (Fig. 1)
Used as an alternative in the milk processing industry, analytical kits provide users a general picture of the collected raw milk and help them taking proper preliminary decisions that could save the technological process.
Usually in milk and dairy products, chemicals fraudulently added in small quantities do not alter very much the taste, color or smell and sometimes they can be detected only by specific chemical tests.
Research carried out within our institute, enabled us to produce the analytical kit indicator like small analytical strips, used in identifying alkaline substances (neutralizers), the chlorides and nitrates, substances added fraudulently in the milk.
ICA Research & Development provides for all those who are interested the kits for determining milk adulteration by adding alkali, chloride or nitrate. Each kit consists of 50 pcs. analytical indicator strip packed in polystyrene bottles. Analytical strips are bands of multi-layer material, having dimensions of 60 / 7 mm, and presenting at one end an active area, impregnated with specific coloring identification reagents. For details and orders please contact the commercial department.