Abstract:
Adulteration of cow's ghee can easily be identified by standard physico- chemical tests. Samples were coded from S-01 to S-14. A pure cow ghee sample
(S-01) was prepared at the laboratory under hygiene conditions. Thirteen
market samples (S-02, S-03, S-04, S-05, S-06, S-07, S-08, S-09, S-10, S-11, S-12, S 13 & S-14) were purchased from Northern, Southern, Western and Central
provinces of Sri Lanka and analyzed for physico-chemical parameters; moisture
and volatile matter contents, relative density, refractive index, acid value, iodine
value, saponification value and peroxide value based on SLS 313-3-5:2016; 313-
1-2:2009; 313-1-5:2017; 313-2-6:2009; 313-2-2:2019; 313-2-1:2014 and 313-3-
7:2017 protocols respectively. The results showed that the moisture and volatile
matter of all 14 samples ranged between 0.12 - 1.89, relative density between
0.0690 - 0.0810, refractive index ranged between 1.4551 - 1.4612; acid value
ranged between 0.5 - 27.8 mg KOH/g of ghee; iodine value ranged 20.29-
35.99% by mass; saponification value ranged 202-245 mg KOH; peroxide value
ranged between 3-172 milliequivalents/1000g ghee respectively. The pure cow
ghee sample (S-01) showed the value for moisture and volatile matter, 0.21;
relative density, 0.073; refractive index, 1.4581 at 280
c; acid value, 0.5; iodine
value, 35.18(S-01); saponification value, 230; peroxide value, 3. The
physicochemical values of the samples S-02 to S-12 were deviating from the
values of the pure sample. S-13 and S-14 samples showed values closer to pure
samples, indicating that they were genuine cow ghee and the samples (S-02 to
S-12) were adulterated with some other oils. This study revealed that
adulteration of ghee can be identified cost effectively by employing
conventional physico-chemical parameters.
