How to check the quality of dairy products in home conditions

Today, a significant amount of dairy products, represented on the Russian market are more likely to relate to chemical industry, rather than agriculture, and therefore not just not useful, but sometimes dangerous to health. How to identify dairy counterfeit at home, read the material

At the end of 2017, Rospotrebnadzor announced a decrease in the number of counterfeit dairy products in circulation. These information confirmed in the National Union of Milk Producers Soyuzmoloko. However, the facts remain disappointing: find in distribution network high-quality “milk” is not easy.

Contents

1 Milk
2 Cottage cheese
3 Cheese
4 Butter

Milk

Milk is a perishable product, so there is no need to harbor illusions about the naturalness of products delivered from the regions, 1,500-3,000 km or more distant from the point of sale (exception – ultra-pasteurized milk). Choose nearby products manufacturers.

Some types of milk counterfeiting can be recognized at home. conditions.

Water dilution test

Diluted milk, most likely, will not harm health, but also no good. You can identify a fake several ways.

Take milk and alcohol in a ratio of 1: 2, mix and Shake well for 30-40 seconds. The resulting mixture pour on a saucer. In undiluted milk after 5-7 seconds flakes form. A longer time span is a sign the presence of water in the drink.
Stir the milk thoroughly and dip the match into it. Put a drop on a napkin. A wet circle forms, speed drying of which will show whether the product is diluted with water or not. If a whole milk, the diameter of the resulting spot does not exceed the original droplet size and will remain wet for more than 2 hours. Diluted the product dries faster: the more water in its composition, the less time is required for this. So if the test fluid half composed of water, the drop will spread and dry in about 20 minutes.
Pour milk into a glass of warm water in a thin stream. The diluted drink instantly mixes with water. With whole it It’s not going to happen right away, at first it will start to rise up.

Starch and flour

They are used to make low-quality milk necessary. densities. It is easy to identify such manipulations: the product a characteristic starchy or floury flavor appears. From adding a drop of iodine it turns blue.

If such a drink is poured into dishes and not mixed, closer to the bottom of the tank, it will become thicker. By boiling a thick precipitate, you can get paste.

Acid, chalk and soda in milk

Another way to extend the shelf life of milk used some manufacturers – the addition of acid (salicylic, acetylsalicylic, boric). Eating them can seriously harm health, especially when it comes to people with intolerance to aspirin. Therefore, it makes sense to purchase special litmus strips to help identify acid component in a milk bag: their color when dipped will become in red.

In the composition of milk, you can sometimes find completely unexpected Components. To identify them, in a glass half full milk, pour ½ teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar. Appearing bubbles and hiss indicate the presence of soda in the drink or chalk.

It happens that enterprising manufacturers add to milk vegetable fats. Unfortunately, on my own it is impossible to identify such falsification. For this it is necessary laboratory research.

Cottage cheese

In accordance with GOST 31453-2013, natural cottage cheese must have pure fermented milk taste without extraneous odors, light aftertaste milk powder is allowed if it is present in the recipe (this permissible and not falsification).

This standard establishes that as fat only milk fat can act as a component of cottage cheese. therefore any attempts by manufacturers to change the composition, introducing into it vegetable fats – falsification. The output is not cottage cheese, but curd product, but enterprising suppliers often “forget” to indicate this on the package.

Try the test sample for taste. Perhaps this is not the most an accurate way to detect fakes, but vegetable fats often give out an oily taste and an unpleasant sensation of a greasy film during to the mouth.
In a glass of warm boiled water, add a teaspoon of cottage cheese, mix and leave for a few minutes. Greasy spots appearing on the surface indicate the presence of substitutes milk fat.
Leave a few teaspoons of the product overnight in a warm place. In the morning, evaluate the result: natural cottage cheese will slightly acidify, do not changing colors, and the falsified one will turn yellowish and cover crust.

It happens that to increase the total mass in the curd is added starch. You can determine this by dropping iodine on the product. Blueing eloquently indicates the presence of starch.

Cheese

Natural cheese is not easy to distinguish from cheese products, but there is criteria that will help to understand its quality.

Real cheese cannot be cheap. According to GOST R 52686-2006, it should be made using only natural dairy products.

For the production of 1 kg of cheese, depending on the recipe An average of 6 to 14 liters of milk is required.

This explains the desire of the manufacturer to reduce the cost of production process and include in fermented milk a delicacy of vegetable fats without informing the consumer. how understand what a pleasant-smelling and mouth-watering-looking cheese falsified?

Cut a thin cheese slice and leave briefly at room temperature, then bend at a right angle. If he quality, then in the bend area there will be no break.
Moisture droplets evolved indicate unnaturalness on the surface of the piece. This is especially pronounced in conditions room temperature.
Semi-hard cheeses containing vegetable fats, when sliced, they either stick to a knife, or break and crumble.
The color of the product must be uniform. Specialists do not advise buying cheese too intense in color, as this indicates the use of dyes, but they are not always natural.
We look at the holes: they must be uniform. Closer to their crust becomes smaller, but without resizing. If a holes are combined into tracks, this is an indicator of poor quality cheese.
A real hard sour-milk delicacy cannot be rolled into ball: it will crumble.

Buy quality natural cheese at a low price impossible. This is the case that can be said: better less is better.

Butter

Falsified butter firmly settled on supermarket shelves. It has a high cost, and often manufacturers do not miss the opportunity to reduce the cost of production by issuing fake for a natural product. Recognize tricky manipulations with oil quality is possible at home.

Cut a small portion from the frozen product. Equal pieces – an indicator of the presence of vegetable fats in the composition. Natural oil will not be cut, it should crumble, breaking off by unequal fragments.
The taste of an oil bite made from natural raw materials, It will be tender and creamy, it will quickly melt in your mouth. The spread will leave a feeling of oily film.
This oil does not have a bright smell, distinguishable through packaging.

The natural product has a uniform pale, barely perceptible yellowish tint. Brighter colors indicate presence dyes.

Unfalsified oil left at room temperature, gradually softens, it will be easy to spread on it bread.
When dissolved in warm water, the fake will decompose into heterogeneous elements, and natural products evenly dissolve.
Quality oil placed in a hot pan immediately will melt and hiss, spreading a pleasant aroma. The spread will become melt slowly, while there is a desire to ventilate the room.

Genuine butter is made in accordance with GOST 32261-2013, namely these numbers should be searched on the packaging. If present on the package other designations, it is a spread or margarine (they are made according to GOST R 52100-2003, 32188-2013).

Before dairy products get to your table, they must go through a thorough selection while still in the store. Study carefully information on the label, paying attention to the shelf life, place production, list of ingredients. Trading network as a library – this is the place to read!

Tatyana Koroleva