Now, check milk adulteration at your home

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 4

With the rising complaints of adulteration of milk and the absence of any mechanism from the government to check the quality of milk, scientists at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University have developed a compact testing kit to check adulteration of milk.

With the initiative of Dr Nitika Goyal, now residents can check the quality of milk by using the testing kit at their home. Dr Nitika said the objective was to provide a compact, simple and easy to use testing kit to people to check impurities in milk bought by them from the market.

Speaking to The Tribune Dr Nitika said: “The practice of adulteration is going on unchecked and people are forced to consume adulterated milk. Milk sellers, especially middlemen, often add sugar, starch, chemical neutralisers, caustic soda, urea and preservatives in milk. These chemicals are harmful for human health. With the use of this testing kit, a layman can easily find the adulterants in milk”.

Dr Nitika said farmers often not add any adulterants in milk at their level, but middlemen add these chemicals for their profit. The residents have a few options to test the milk before consuming it.

The testing kits are available at the Department of Dairy Sciences and Technology of the GADVASU at an affordable price. The scientists are also giving a pamphlet with the kit explaining how to use it and identify adulterants in milk.

Dr Nitika said one could conduct 100 tests with the help of the testing kit.

Speaking about the packed milk by cooperatives and private brands, Dr Nitika said: “It is the responsibility of the cooperatives to provide pure milk to consumers. Several private brands are also selling packed milk in the market. If they are using any preservative, the testing kit will also identify those chemicals”.