Across the globe, the most consumed food is milk. Given its healthy properties and being readily available, everyone has milk in their daily diet. Therefore, it is no brainer that the demand for milk is high all the time.

When something has such a high demand, then it is very much possible that many suppliers may adulterate it to produce more quantity to meet the demand. In India, milk is the most adulterated food available on the market. It is adulterated by a variety of items like vanaspati, water, starch, urea etc.

You could avoid consuming adulterated milk by testing it first. It can be done easily at home by following methods:

Ways To Check Adulteration in Milk

1. Reduction Test

For this test, keep the milk on low heat and let it boil for 2-3 hours. What will remain is a solid hard thing called khoya. If the milk is adulterated, then this khoya will be rock solid and rough. On the other hand, if the milk is pure, then the khoya will be oily and smooth.

2. Synthetic Milk

When pure milk is mixed with soap and some chemicals, you get synthetic milk. This milk can be identified easily by its bad taste. Also, due to the addition of soap, it feels like soap when you rub it and when you heat it, it will turn yellow.

3. Too Much Water

Milk does contain water in it naturally. But many suppliers add more water to it to increase its quantity. While this milk isn’t harmful to you, it is not good for your pocket. To check if the quantity of water is too high, just place a drop of milk on your fist and let it flow. If you see a trail of it, then this milk is adulterated with water but if there is no trail, then it is pure.

4. To Check Dalda/Vanaspati in Milk

Dalda or vanaspati is bad for your health. Therefore, it becomes necessary to check if the milk that you are drinking is adulterated with it. To check this, take 1 tablespoon of milk and add 1 tablespoon of sugar and 2 tablespoons of hydrochloric acid. If this mixture turns red in color, it is impure milk.

5. To Check If Startch Is Added To Milk

To check this, simply add 2 tablespoons of salt to 5 ml of milk. If this mixture turns blue in color, then it is adulterated with starch otherwise it is pure.

6. To Check If Milk Is Adulterated With Formalin

Formalin is a type of preservative that is used to increase the shelf life of consumable products. It has no color, therefore, many reputed milk producers use this preservative to adulterate the milk. To check this, take a test tube and put 10 ml of milk and 2-3 drops of sulphuric acid. If you see a blue colored ring appearing on the top, then the milk is definitely adulterated with formalin.

7. To Check If Milk Is Adulterated With Urea

Urea is the most used substance to adulterate milk in India. This is because urea doesn’t affect the taste of milk and is difficult to detect. To check if your milk is adulterated by urea, take a half tablespoon of milk and mix it with soybean or arhar powder. Shake this mixture well and leave it for 5 minutes. Then take a litmus paper and dip it into this mixture for 30 seconds. If the color of litmus paper changes from red to blue then this indicates that the milk is in fact adulterated with urea and should not be consumed as it can cause health issues.

It has been found in a survey that more than 65% of milk sold in India is adulterated. This milk has any of the above-mentioned substances added to it. Even though our government is taking firm steps to ensure that we get pure milk, it is very difficult to apply those rules in our huge country. Therefore, we must not leave everything to our government and make it our own duty to check if the milk that we are consuming is indeed pure.

Hope you found this article useful. If you have any suggestions or queries, then please leave a comment below.