Detection of bovine milk contaminants in adulterated milk and curd goat cheese / Detecção de fraude em leite e queijo de coalho caprino por adição de leite bovino

ABSTRACT

Background: Goat milk is quite useful as an alternative for feeding children and adults who are sensitive or allergic to bovine milk because of its peculiar characteristics, and goat milk ensures the subsistence of small producers. Therefore, ensuring the purity and satisfactory quality of dairy goat products is essential for consumer safety. Accordingly, the present study aimed to detect adulteration of goat milk and curd goat cheese with bovine milk contaminants using polymerase chain reaction (PCR).Materials, Methods & Results: For this purpose, the detection limit of the PCR assay was tested using bovine milk added to goat milk at concentrations of 0.5%, 1.0%, 5.0%, 10.0%, 25.0%, 50.0%, and 100%. Subsequently, goat milk from 79 producers and 43 samples collected from community cooling tanks was tested. Curd goat cheese was subsequently manufactured in the laboratory according to technical recommendations. The quality of the curd cheese was assessed by adding the aforementioned concentrations of bovine milk to goat milk, and PCR was performed to detect contaminants. Genomic DNA was extracted from milk and curd cheese samples and subjected to amplification by PCR using specific primers. After amplification, PCR products were analyzed in 1.5% agarose gel, stained with ethidium bromide, and visualized using a UV transilluminator. The quality of milk DNA was evaluated using...(AU)