Quality control of dairy products using single frequency admittance measurements

Abstract

A reusable device for the detection of adulteration in dairy products such as milk and cream has been developed. The ac electrical admittance spectra of different samples have been studied using both uncoated and alkyl mercaptan-coated gold electrodes. Uncoated gold electrodes exhibited a polarization at around 250 Hz for full fat milk, while mercaptan-coated gold electrodes showed a similar effect at around 2 kHz. The characteristics at 100 kHz and 8 °C for all skimmed milk samples revealed a linear decrease in conductance with increasing water content over the entire range of water concentration. In contrast, the conductance of full fat milk, single and double cream, showed a linear decrease only at added water concentration higher than 6%. At lower concentrations, these dairy products exhibited anomalous conductivity maxima.