Rapid detection of the adulterants in milk using gamma radiation
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Date
2023-05
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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 attenu ation 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.