DETECTION OF ADULTERANT IN RAW COW MILK AND ITS IMPACT ON TOTAL SOLIDS (TS) USING FOURIER TRANSFORM INFRARED (FTIR) SPECTROSCOPY

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is commonly used for milk analysis and the detection of certain milk adulterants. This study attempts to ascertain the accuracy of the FTIR machine in identifying adulterants as well as to detect the impact of adulterants in Total Solids (TS) value in raw cow milk samples. Milk samples were from samples received in Biochemistry Section, Veterinary Research Institute (VRI). Each adulterant’s concentration set was based on the milk analyser’s Limit of Detection (LOD). The coefficient of determination (R2) between the actual (set of concentration) and predicted values showed that all adulterants achieved R2 values greater than 0.99, with minimal error. Analysis showed that the TS value increased with increasing the concentration of the adulterant. Sodium bicarbonate, however, had the opposite effect. Coefficient corelation analysis between TS and adulterant having a high correlation value (more than 99.0%) for all adulterant tested. Overall, the FTIR machine proved a good accuracy in detecting a various of possible adulterants in milk. Additionally, this investigation demonstrates unequivocally that adding adulterants to milk significantly raises the milk’s TS value. However, some adulterants are too dangerous to be ignored. Keywords: FTIR, adulterants, raw cow milk, total solids.