Recent advances on determination of milk adulterants

Abstract

Milk adulteration is a current fraudulent practice to mask the quality parameters (e.g. protein and fat content) and increase the product shelf life. Milk adulteration includes addition of toxic substances, such as formaldehyde, hydrogen peroxide, hypochlorite, dichromate, salicylic acid, melamine, and urea. In order to assure the food safety and avoid health risks to consumers, novel analytical procedures have been proposed for detection of these adulterants. The innovations encompass sample pretreatment and improved detection and data processing, including chemometric tools. This review focuses on critical evaluation of analytical approaches for assay of milk adulteration, with emphasis on applications published after 2010. Alternatives for fast, environmentally friendly and in-situ detection of milk adulterants are highlighted.

Keywords: Chemometrics; Electroanalysis; Fats; Food adulteration; Hydrogen peroxide; Melamine; Milk analysis; Spectrometry.