Six Common Types of Adulteration (Illegal Additives) in Dairy Products

Milk and dairy products have high nutritional value. With the continuous improvement of the world society, especially the economic level of developing countries, the consumption of dairy products has been increasing year by year. Using milk to increase nutrition and strengthen the body has become the driving force for many households to consume dairy products. However, illegal additives often appear in dairy products, posing a health hazard to consumers.

It is understood that the purpose of adding illegal additives to dairy products is to add water to milk then increase milk weight, protein content and other indicators to normal ranges; to add low-cost materials to earn illegitimate benefits; to prevent milk from spoiling or to mask the unpleasant odor of milk.

Illegal additives in dairy products can be classified into the following six categories:

1. Electrolytes
Common salts include neutral salts (such as table salt, sodium nitrate, and saltpeter), weak acid weak base salts (such as ammonium carbonate), strong base weak acid salts (such as sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate), and other salts (such as alum and lime water). Alkali added milk not only has a poor taste, but also produces harmful substances while spoilage bacteria grow, which can also damage the vitamins in milk and be detrimental to the health of consumers.

2. Non-Electrolyte Crystals
These substances refer to small molecular substances that do not ionize in water and exist in real solution form, such as urea, sucrose, etc.

3. Colloidal Substances
Generally, they are macro-molecular liquids in the form of colloidal solution, emulsion, etc., such as rice juice (rice soup), soybean milk, etc.

4. Preservatives and Antibiotics
Substances with antibacterial or bactericidal properties, such as various preservatives (formaldehyde, boric acid, salicylic acid, hydrogen peroxide, etc.), pesticides (such as dichlorvos, etc.), and antibiotics (such as penicillin, etc.). Preservatives and pesticides are generally added in small amounts because they can cause poisoning and pose serious hazards.

There are two ways to add antibiotics: one is to directly add them to milk, and the other is for antibiotic residues in milk from antibiotics consumed by cows. According to regulations, cows generally have a 5-7 day rest period after using antibiotics, during which the milk produced is discarded. However, some unscrupulous producers sell this type of milk to dairy producers and mix it into distribution channels. At present, many bacteria have developed resistance to antibiotics. In the past, penicillin was used to treat mastitis in cows, usually using tens of thousands of units at a time, but now the dosage has increased to millions of units. Such a large dosage can cause antibiotics to remain in milk. Drinking too much of these dairy products can lead to a lack of effective medication when a certain infectious disease becomes prevalent due to the widespread resistance of the population.

5. Impurities
Substances that are immiscible with cow’s milk, such as shoe powder, laundry detergent, etc. These adulterated substances, in mild cases, deprive people of the necessary nutrition and cause economic losses; in severe cases, endanger people’s health and even cause food poisoning, and in severe cases, lead to death.

6. High Nitrogen Compounds and High-Fat Substances
Such as melamine, protein powder, leather powder, fat powder, etc. Taking leather powder as an example, it belongs to non-edible high protein substances, mainly composed of hydrolyzed leather protein. These substances cannot be decomposed in the body and can slowly accumulate, leading to poisoning and posing great harm to the human body, even causing the death of children.

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