PRACTICAL 13:

ADULTERATION OF MILK

09/03/2025 Dr Deepa Surendran 1

 ADULTERATION OF MILK
• Adulteration of milk or milk products is an act of
intentionally debasing the quality of milk offered for sale
either by
1] the admixture [adding] or
2] Substitution of inferior substances or
3] the removal of some valuable ingredient
as well as the incidental contamination during the period of
growth, harvesting, storage, processing, transport and
distribution.
• “Adulterant” means any material which is or could be
employed for making the milk unsafe or sub-standard or
misbranded or containing extraneous matter.
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 ADULTERATION OF MILK
• Milk is declared adulterated if:
• A substance is added which depreciates or injuriously
affects it
• Cheaper or inferior substances are substituted wholly
or in part
• Any valuable or necessary constituent has been wholly
or in part removed
• It is an imitation
• It is coloured or otherwise treated, to improve its
appearance or if it contains any added substance
injurious to health.
• For whatever reasons its quality is below the standard.
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 ADULTERATION OF MILK
• Milk is usually adulterated for following objectives.
• a) Increase in volume
• b) Increase in specific gravity and to mask watering
• c) Improve keeping quality by adding preservatives
and
• d) Skimming.

• Adulterated milk is:

• toxic and can affect health
• could deprive nutrients essential for proper growth and
development
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•
 ADULTERATION OF MILK
• The Indian Council of Medical Research [ICMR] has
reported that :
• “milk adulterants have hazardous health effects. The
detergent in milk can cause food poisoning and other
gastrointestinal complications. Its high alkaline level
can also damage body tissue and destroy proteins.
Other synthetic components can cause impairments,
heart problems, cancer or even death. While the
immediate effect of drinking milk adulterated with
urea, caustic soda and formalin is gastroenteritis, the
long-term effects are far more serious.”
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 ADULTERATION OF MILK
• Adulterants used in Milk:

1) dilution with water – most common

• reduces its nutritional value, contaminated water can also cause additional
health problems
2) Detergent
3) Sodium hydroxide (caustic soda)
4) Sodium carbonate
5) Formalin
5) Starch
6) Sugar
7) Maltodextrin
8) Urea
9) Salt
10) Foreign
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fat Dr Deepa Surendran 6
 TESTS TO DETECT ADULTERATION IN MILK
• Simple, rapid and sensitive methods to detect adulterants in milk.

I. Detection of Neutralizers in Milk

• Neutralizers (NaOH, 0.1% Na2CO3 and 0.2% NaHCO3) are added to
milk to neutralize the developed acidity in milk
Rosalic acid Method : Take 2 ml milk sample in a test tube and add 2 ml
rosalic acid solution. Mix the contents.
• If alkali is present in milk, a rose red color appears whereas pure milk
shows only a brownish colour.
• Test is effective only if the neutralizers are present in milk. If the
added neutralizers are nullified by the developed acidity, then this
test will be negative.
• In that case, the alkaline condition of the milk for the presence of
soda ash has to be estimated.
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 ADULTERATION OF MILK
II. Detection of Preservatives in Milk

1. Test for Presence of Hydrogen Peroxide in Milk

Using Potassium Iodide and Starch method
• Take 1 ml of milk sample in a test tube. Add 1 ml of the
potassium iodide-starch reagent and mix well. Observe the
color of the solution in the tube
• Blue color will be developed in the presence of H2O2
• Pure milk sample remain white in color.
•

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TESTS TO DETECT ADULTERATION IN MILK
II. Detection of Preservatives in Milk
2. Test for Presence of Formalin in Milk
• Formalin [40%] is poisonous though it can preserve milk for
a long time
Chromotropic Acid Method
• Take one ml of milk sample in a test tube. Add 1 ml of the
chromotropic acid reagent and mix well.
• Appearance of yellow color confirms the presence of
formalin in the sample,
• Pure milk sample will remain white (translucent).

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TESTS TO DETECT ADULTERATION IN MILK
II. Detection of Preservatives in Milk
3. Test for Presence of Boric acid and Borates in milk
Turmeric paper method
• Take 20 ml of milk in a porcelain dish and add 1.4 ml of
conc. hydrochloric acid and mix it thoroughly. Dip a strip of
turmeric paper in the acidified milk.
• Appearance of characteristic red colour on the turmeric
paper indicates the presence of boric acid or borax
(Na2B4O7.10H2O). The red colour changes to dark blue
green on adding ammonium hydroxide, but reappears on
reacidification with hydrochloric acid.

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TESTS TO DETECT ADULTERATION IN MILK
III. Detection of adulterants in milk
1. Detection of Cane Sugar in Milk
• Sucrose is absent in milk and its presence in milk indicate adulteration.
• Sugar is mixed in the milk to increase SNF content of milk i.e. to increase
the lactometer reading of milk, which was already diluted with water.

Modified Seliwanoff’s Method

Take 1 ml of milk in a test tube. Add 1 ml of Resorcinol Solution and mix.
Place the tube in boiling water bath for 5 min. Withdraw the tube and
observe the colour.
• Fructose in cane sugar (sucrose) reacts with resorcinol in HCl to give red
colour.
• Appearance of deep red colour indicates presence of sucrose, or a ketose
sugar.
• In pure milk samples, sample Drremains
09/03/2025
white in nature.
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TESTS TO DETECT ADULTERATION IN MILK
III. Detection of adulterants in milk
2. Detection of starch in Milk
• wheat flour, arrowroot, rice flour increases the SNF content of
milk
• wheat flour, arrowroot, rice flour contain starch
• Iodine method
• Take about 5 ml of milk in a test tube. Bring to boiling
condition and allow the test tube to cool to room
temperature. Add 1-2 drops of iodine solution to the test
tube.
• Development of blue colour indicates presence of starch
which disappears when sample is boiled and reappears on
cooling.
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TESTS TO DETECT ADULTERATION IN MILK
III. Detection of adulterants in milk
3. Detection of added urea in milk
• natural constituent of milk, major part of the nonprotein nitrogen
• Urea concentration in milk is variable within herd
• in natural milk varies from 20 mg-70 mg/100 ml.
• above 70 mg/100 ml –‘added urea’.
• generally added in the preparation of synthetic milk to raise the SNF value.

Qualitative Method : based on the principle that urea forms a yellow

complex with paradimethylaminobenzaldehyde (DMAB) in a low acidic
solution at room temperature.
Mix 1 ml of milk with 1 ml of 1.6% DMAB reagent.
• Distinct yellow colour is observed in milk containing added urea
• control (normal milk) shows a slight yellow colour due to presence of
natural urea
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• The limit of detection of method is 0.2%.
TESTS TO DETECT ADULTERATION IN MILK
• III. Detection of adulterants in milk
• 4. Detection of Glucose in Milk
Modified Barford method
• Immediate formation of deep blue color after
adding phosphomolybdic acid reagent indicates the
presence of added glucose in the milk sample.
• In case of pure milk only faint bluish color can be
observed due to the dilution of Barfoed’s reagent.

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 ADULTERANTS IN MILK
I. Detection of Neutralizers in Milk
Test for Presence of NaOH, 0.1% Na2CO3 and 0.2% NaHCO3 in
Milk
II. Detection of Preservatives in Milk
1. Test for Presence of Hydrogen Peroxide in Milk
2. Test for Presence of Formalin in Milk
3. Test for Presence of Boric acid and Borates in milk
III. Detection of adulterants added to raise SNF
4. Detection of Cane Sugar in Milk
5. Detection of starch in Milk
6. Detection of added urea in milk
Detection of Glucose in DrMilk
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 ADULTERANTS IN MILK
I. Detection of Neutralizers in Milk
Rosalic acid Method
II. Detection of Preservatives in Milk
1. Test for Presence of Hydrogen Peroxide in Milk
• Using Potassium Iodide and Starch method
2. Test for Presence of Formalin in Milk
• Chromotropic Acid Method
1. Test for Presence of Boric acid and Borates in milk
• Turmeric paper method

III. Detection of adulterants added to raise SNF

1. Detection of Cane Sugar in Milk
• Modified Seliwanoff’s Method
Detection of starch in Milk
• Iodine method
1. Detection of added urea in milk
• Qualitative Method
2. Detection of Glucose in Milk Dr Deepa Surendran 09/03/2025 16
 THANK YOU

03/09/2025 Dr Deepa Surendran 17