Análisis de adulterantes en la leche cruda

Abstract

Raw cow's milk is considered one of the basic foods in people's diet, thanks to its high content of nutrients. In Ecuador the daily production of milk for the year 2017 reached 5,135,405 liters; however, in spite of being a product of vital importance for the development of Ecuador, it is experiencing a number of complications. One of the most common fraudulent practices in the production of milk is the adulteration by water or whey of cheese with the purpose of increasing its volume. The present research work has the objective of knowing the different methods that exist in the determination of adulterants in raw milk. The methods used in the detection of water are the cryoscopic method, refractometric method and the lactometric method. In addition to the addition of water, other substances are also used such as: starches, chlorides, sucrose and alkaline neutralizers, with the purpose of modifying some physicochemical properties and masking the adulteration by water, for this reason it is necessary to carry out other analyses to determine the presence of chlorides and sucrose in milk. Likewise, it was analyzed a real case in four cheese processors in the city of Montería Córdova (Colombia), where several physicochemical parameters were evaluated, among them water addition and adulterants, obtaining as results an increase of 22.22% of water, 8.08% of sucrose and 7.07% of starches of the total of the taken samples, it was not detected presence of chlorides.