Issue:4 Citation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Melamine is a toxic triazine used as an adulterant in milk & milk related products to increase the protein content. RP-HPLC method has been developed using water as mobile phase to detect and quantify the melamine residue in powdered milk. Melamine was extracted by precipitation of milk protein at its isoelectric point with dilute acids. Samples were purified by using membrane filter of 0.45 µm pore size, AmChemteq ACI C 18 (4.6mmx250mm, 5µm) column as the stationary phase. The linearity curve was constructed for the concentration of melamine ranging from 1 mg/kg to 25 mg/kg. The correlation co-efficient was found to be 1.000. Ten marketed powdered milk brands were studied by this method. It was observed that all the ten brands were found to contain melamine residue ranging from 0.00001 mg/kg to 0.00006 mg/kg. The results were below the limits set by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. This is the first study to confirm the existence of melamine residue in powdered milk marketed in Tamilnadu