Adulteration of milk: A Review

Abstract

In addition to chemical hazards, this paper presents occurrence of common milk adulterants in milk and as different methods used to detect the adulterants both qualitatively and quantitatively. Most of the chemicals used as adulterants are poisonous that cause health hazards affecting human beings. Such adulterants reduce the nutrient value and also lead to contamination and not fit for consumption. The adulterants in milk i.e. urea, formalin, detergents, ammonium sulphate, boric acid, caustic soda, benzoic acid, salicylic acid, hydrogen peroxide, sugars and melamine used for the increasing shelf life, volume etc. lead to serious public health concern. This study is envisaged to be an adulterant based study instead of techniques based one. Different types of quantitative detection techniques depend on the nature of adulterants in milk are used. Quality control tests for milk are very important for adulterant free milk for consumption.