Milk Preservatives and Adulterants: Processing, Regulatory and Safety Issues

Abstract

Liquid milk has been an important human nutrient source for a thousand years. However, the safety of milk has always been challenged due to illegal use of preservatives and adulterants such as hydrogen peroxide, salicylic acid, benzoic acid, water, neutralizers, melamine, and so on. Downloaded by [Selcuk Universitesi] at 05:28 03 February 2015A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t 2 Addition of these two types of substances in milk has become a common feature for fulfilling the milk demands of over-populated countries. Now, for the dairy industry, it seems to be difficult to run the plant without the use of preservatives and or adulterants especially under Indian conditions. In addition to their potential toxic effects on human health, they also undermine the economy of a country. The lack of timely action against the unscrupulous traders by the Public Health Departments and other law enforcement groups, and lack of simple and rapid methods for detection of adulteration further encourage this menace. This overview attempts to address the key features of these two types of harmful substances in milk, their effect on milk composition and constituents along with their regulatory and safety aspects.

Electrochemical nanosensors: advances and applications

“…122 This large market has resulted in the development of a large variety of electrochemical sensors to assess milk quality for possible contaminants, including melamine, 123,124 antibiotics, 59,125 bisphenol A (from packaging contamination), 126 DNA bases, 127 and hydrogen peroxide. 122,128,129 Hydrogen peroxide has been used as a means of artificially preserving milk 130 and due to the possibility of adverse health effects from over exposure, the US Food and Drug Administration has limited its acceptable concentration to 80 ppm. 131 Eggshell membranes (ESMs) have been used as a platform for supporting graphene oxide (GO) for hydrogen peroxide sensitive electrodes.…”

Effect of species, breeds, season and stage of lactation on urea content of milk and its variation during processing of milk and milk products

“…High level of urea in milk may causes health problem like indigestion, acidity, ulcers, cancer, malfunctioning of kidneys, osteoporosis and gradual impairment of the body (Abdallah et al, 2008). It is also very harmful especially to young girls as it hastens the process of puberty (Singh and Gandhi, 2015).…”

Common milk adulteration and their detection techniques

“…Ammonium sulphate is added to increase the lactometer reading by maintaining the density of diluted milk. Formalin, Salicylic acid, Benzoic acid and Hydrogen peroxide act as preservatives and increase the shelf life of the milk (Singh & Gandhi, 2015). Since milk fat is very expensive, some manufacturers of milk and dairy products remove milk fat for additional financial gain and compensate it by adding non-milk fat such as vegetable oil.…”

“…Adulterants in milk mainly include addition of vegetable protein, milk from different species, addition of whey and watering which are known as economically motivated adulteration (Fischer, Schilter, Tritscher, & Stadler, 2011;Singh & Gandhi, 2015). These adulterations do not pose any severe health risk.…”

“…Possible reasons behind it may include-demand and supply gap, perishable nature of milk, low purchasing capability of customer and lack of suitable detection tests (Kamthania et al 2014). The motivation for food fraud is economic, but the impact is a real public health concern (Ellis, Brewster, Dunn, Allwood, Golovanov, & Goodacre, 2012;Singh & Gandhi, 2015). The situation is significantly worse in developing and underdeveloped countries due to the absence of adequate monitoring and lack of proper law enforcement.…”