Evaluation of nutritional quality, contamination, adulteration and preservative quality of different sources of milk

Abstract

The present study was conducted at Dairy Science laboratory of Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University to evaluate nutritional quality, contamination, adulteration and preservative status of different sources of fluid milk. Milk samples were collected from farm, vendors and departmental stores. Test performed to evaluate the milk samples were chemical (% of butter fat, solids-not-fat and protein), added preservatives, adulteration status and microbial population (standard plate count, coliform and salmonella count). Results indicate that available market milk irrespective of brand maintaining the Bangladesh Standard Testing Institute (BSTI) standards as far as butter fat, solids- not-fat, protein and microbial quality is concerned. The nutritional and microbial quality of farm produced milk (FPM) was good except high coliform count. The nutritional and chemical quality of FPM and market milk (MM) of all five brands were satisfactory but vendors supplied milk was below standard due to water adulteration. Microbial quality of MM of all five brands was very safe for human consumption. High fat content even after watering and presence of formalin in 8% samples of vendor supplied rural milk (VSRM) indicates evening milk of previous day might be mixed with morning milk of next day. It may be concluded that these adulterants and preservatives in milk may cause severe public health related problems.