Rapid detection of the adulterants in milk using gamma radiation

Abstract

Milk and dairy adulteration practice nowadays is becoming a global concern. The present study discloses the role of gamma irradiation as a cost-effective and rapid-detection approach to detect adulterants in milk instead of using expensive and time-consuming chemical-based methods. In the present study, synthetic milk samples were prepared using different common adulterants (vegetable oil, urea, water) and a comparative analysis has been done with market milk samples along with fresh milk based upon the attenuation property. The obtained linear attenuation coefficient decreases significantly (p < 0.05) with the increasing concentration of adulterants in sample. The recorded attenuation coefficient for fresh milk was 0.379 ± 0.04 and that of adulterated samples found to be in the range of 0.296–0.188. Moreover, different protein coagulation patterns of the heat-processed milk samples were detected. The coagulated protein of adulterated milk shows a granular texture. The attenuation coefficient of milk samples decreases with the gradual increase of adulterants. The correlation between the attenuation coefficient and adulterants in milk indicated the possible use of gamma radiation as a significant adulterant-detection method.