India’s milk production has increased by 51 percent in the last 8 years. India’s share in the world’s total milk production has increased to 24 percent in 2021-22. Despite this, milk adulteration remains a major concern of Indian consumers.
The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT Madras) and the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal are jointly working to find a solution. In this way, using a drop of milk, the adulteration can be known through evaporation technique.
With this technique, starch can be detected in milk and starch adulteration up to 0.005 percent by weight can be detected by volume. Researchers have come up with a very simple technique to detect the amount of starch in milk and other liquids. This is known as a ‘blocked drop’ of milk under a portable microscope. This method is cheaper, more effective and more accurate than the traditional technique and can be installed at the relevant places.
India’s total milk production is set to increase from 1,463.1 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 to 2,211 lakh tonnes in 2021-22 due to various initiatives of the central government. By some industry estimates, more than 70 percent of this is adulterated.
The last countrywide National Milk Safety and Quality Survey conducted by FSSAI found that out of a total of 6,432 samples, only 0.19 per cent were adulterated.
“The concept is based on droplet evaporation,” said Madiwala G Vasavaraj of the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras. We have conducted tests according to our hypothesis. Starch is the cheapest available option, which is adulterated in India.
