Milk adulteration: An overview on adulterants, detection tests and effects on human health

Milk, an essential commodity in day to day life, has been recognized as a complete food for all age groups and has been considered as one of the inseparable parts of daily diet. Cow milk reported to be a source of fat, lactose, proteins, vitamins and minerals also contains several nutrients needed for growth and maintenance of health. However, about 68.7% of milk and milk products sold in India does not follow the standards laid down by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Normally adulteration of milk has been done for either financial gain or due to lack of hygiene during processing, storage, transportation and marketing. Common adulterants found in milk included water, table sugar, starch, urea, skimmed milk powder, formalin and detergents. Thus, milk adulteration has been posing a big social problem. Apart from the ethical and economical issue, consumption of adulterated milk leads to serious health problems. Hence, the present article focused on milk adulteration and its effect on human health