Identification of adulterated sheep and goat cheeses marketed in Romania by immunocromatographic assay

Abstract

The authenticity of different animal food products has important attention in many countries received in the last few years. The majority of dairy products' authenticity identification methodologies are based on major milk proteins analysis. One of the main problems in cheese making is the adulteration of sheep and goats milk with cow's milk, because cow's milk is cheaper. The aim of this paper is to detect the presence of cow's milk in sheep's and goat's cheeses which are sold in the retail markets of Romania. For this purpose, a total of 73 sheep's and goat's cheese samples were purchased randomly from different markets. An immunochromatographic test kit was used to detect the presence of cow's milk in sheep and goat cheeses. No adulteration was found in 32.6% and 20.3% of sheep and goat cheese samples, respectively, while the presence of cow's milk was detected in 67.3% and 79.7% of samples, respectively. These results were considered to be unacceptable and routine controls on adulterated sheep and goat cheese should be performed in Romania.