Check Milk & Milk Products for Adulterants with simple tests at Home

Milk & Milk Products
Festivals are always celebrated with sweets and various food products. However, since food adulteration is at its peak during the festive season, we have come up with a list of doable tests to detect some common adulterants in Milk & Milk Products which may help you keep safe. Merely inspecting milk or food visually may not be helpful enough to detect an adulterant as they are concealed very skillfully. Adulterants in food can pose a serious health risk. Carry out these simple tests at home to ensure that you are consuming safe and adulterant free food during the festive season. The following information is being shared with you as per the guidelines from FSSAI.
Home tests for adulteration in milk and milk products
Water in milk is easy to detect with this simple test. Place a drop of milk on a polished slanting surface. If water is mixed in the milk it will glide down swiftly. If the milk is pure it will glide down slowly and will leave a white trail behind.
Starch: Add a few drops of tincture of iodine or iodine solution to a little milk. If the milk turns blue it means it contains starch. Iodine solution is easily available in medical stores.
Starch like mashed potatoes in khoya and khoya products, chenna and paneer: Boil a small quantity of sample food product in water. When the heated mixture becomes cool, add a few drops of iodine solution. If the colour of the mixture turns blue it means there is starch in the food product.
Urea: Place a teaspoon of milk in a test tube or glass container. Add a teaspoonful of soya bean or arhar dal powder to it. Mix up the contents thoroughly. After five minutes, dip a strip of red litmus paper into the mixture. Wait for half a minute. If the red litmus paper has changed colour from red to blue it means there is urea in the milk.
Detergent: Take 5 to 10ml of milk and an equal amount of water in a container. Shake it up well. Lather formation indicates detergent in the milk.
Test for Glucose/Invert Sugar: This kind of sugar syrup is added to milk to increase the consistency and enhance the taste. Take a diabetic test strip and dip it in the milk for 30 seconds to 1 minute. If the test strip changes colour, then it shows that the sample of milk contains glucose. If there is no change in the colour of the strip it proves there is no glucose in the milk.
Synthetic milk: Synthetic milk contains white coloured water, paint, oils, alkali, urea and detergent. Synthetic milk tastes bitter, has a soapy texture when you rub it between your fingers and it turns yellowish on heating.
Synthetic milk-test for protein: Milk can easily be tested by Urease Strips. Urease Strip is a biostrip based on enzymatic assay and is available in medical stores. The colour chart of the Urease Strip test given below will show the quantity of urea present in milk.

No.	Urea in Milk (g/L)	Colour of the Strip
1	0-0.2	Yellow
2	0.2-0.7	Peach
3	0.7-1.20	Reddish Brown
4	1.20-1.70	Pink
5	1.7-14.00	Magenta