Abstract:
Cow ghee is a nutritious food with a lot of health
benefits and popular ingredient in many vegetarian
diets and indigenous medical formulations. Due to
high demand, the adulteration of cow ghee with
more affordable and widely available vegetable oils
and animal fat is common in many industries. The
detection of adulteration by instrumental techniques
is expensive and time-consuming. Therefore,
simple, rapid and cost-effective tests are essential
for the detection of adulterants in cow ghee. The aim
of this study was to compare the physicochemical
parameters of pure cow ghee with the market
samples using the SLS 313 and detection of
adulteration using chromogenic tests and
conformation through GC-MS. A pure cow ghee
sample (S-01) was prepared from the curd made in
the laboratory. Thirteen market samples (S-02 to S-
14) were purchased from Northern, Southern,
Western and Central provinces and analyzed for
physicochemical parameters (moisture and volatile
matter content, relative density, refractive index,
acid value, iodine value, saponification value and
peroxide value) based on SLS 313 standard
protocols. As chromogenic tests, Modified
Salkowski, and furfural tests were followed. In the
Modified Salkowski test, the pure sample observed a
red colour, whereas the adulterated samples showed
a reddish brown to dark brown colour. The pure
sample showed no colour in the furfural test, while
the adulterated sample showed a light pink to
crimson red. In conclusion, eleven market samples
(from S-02 to S-12) were adulterated in different levels with edible oils and GC-MS analysis
confirmed the adulterants and the chemical
composition variation from the pure cow ghee
samples.
