Adulteration of milk simply translates into a process in which the quality of milk is degenerated by adding chemical substitutes or any other ingredients of inferior quality. This helps increase the profit margins for sellers as the quantity of real milk becomes low. This also leads to a severe decline in the nutritional profile of the milk and can lead to a lot of bodily changes.
Also, injecting the cattle with artificial chemicals or hormones to increase the yield is another way of milk adulteration. The same chemicals and injected hormones are present in the milk that are ingested by children and people of all age groups. This leads to unwanted bodily changes in people. Most people cannot understand if their milk is adulterated or not. Here are some simple tips and tricks that will help you check whether the milk that you are drinking is pure or adulterated.
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* Presence Of Milk
One of the most common techniques for increasing profit margins by selling milk is to add water to the milk and dilute it. This can be easily checked at home. One has to put a drop of the milk on a slanting, polished surface. If the milk stays there for a long time or starts flowing very slowly and leaves a trail behind, then it is pure milk. However, adulterated milk will soon start flowing and will not leave any kind of trail or mark.
* Detergent In Milk
There are a lot of people who also add detergent to milk to give it a white touch that appears like your milk. To check if the milk that you are drinking has detergent or not, you can take a small sample and an equivalent amount of water. Mix these two and shake the mixture vigorously until it mixes properly. Milk that has been adulterated is going to form a dense lather-like mixture that will give soapy effects. On the other hand, if the milk is pure, then it will form a very thin layer of foam due to the constant shaking.
* Presence Of Starch
Starch in milk is very common these days. One can also find starch being added to milk products like chhena, paneer, and khoya. The presence of starch is not that easy to detect, which is why it is becoming a very common additive these days. To find if your milk or milk products have starch in them or not, you have to take a sample of boiled milk and add 5 ml of water. Now, if you want to check the purity of butter or ghee, there is no need to add water. In the mixture of milk and water, add 2 to 3 drops of iodine. In ghee or any other milk products, one can just directly add the iodine drops. If the mixture turns into a blue liquid, then it means that starch is present. On the other hand, if the milk remains the same, then it means that the milk is free from any added starch.
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* Presence Of Urea
Another common additive that is present in milk and a lot of milk products is urea. Urea can be simply detected by taking a sample of milk in a test tube and then adding some soybean or arhar powder to the mixture. Check the test tube properly and let it rest for five minutes. After five minutes, dip the red litmus paper inside the test tube and remove it after 30 seconds. A change in the colour of the red litmus paper to blue simply means that the milk has urea in it.
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* Synthetic Milk
Synthetic milk has a very bitter taste and will also even give a soapy feeling. The easiest way to check if milk is synthetic or not is to simply take it between fingers and start rubbing it. If the milk starts turning yellowish upon heating it a bit, it simply means that the milk has been made by adding white paint, oils or different types of alkali. If one doesn't want to make an extra effort to heat the milk, then one can simply take a sample of the milk and add some water to it. Upon adding water to the milk, one would see that the texture becomes a bit absurd, and it would be evident that the milk has been adulterated.