IIT-H scientists developed sensor to detect milk adulteration; Works on smart phone

IIT-H scientists developed sensor to detect milk adulteration; Works on smart phone

Scientists at the IIT-Hyderabad are working on developing a Smart-phone based sensor which can detect the adulteration level in milk. As a first step, the scientists have successfully developed a detector system to measure the acidity of the milk. The detector is a special paper which changes its colors according to the acidity of the milk. They have also developed an algorithm that can be incorporated into smart phones to detect the color change. The study was published in the November 2018 issue of Food Analytical Methods journal. The research was undertaken by a team led by Prof Shiv Govind Singh, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Hyderabad. Other members of the team include Dr Soumya Jana and Dr Siva Rama Krishna Vanjari, Associate Professors in the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Hyderabad and others. "While techniques such as chromatography and spectroscopy can be used to detect adulteration, such techniques generally require expensive setup and are not amenable to miniaturization into low-cost easy-to-use devices. Hence, they do not appeal to the vast majority of milk consumers in the developing world," Prof Singh talked about the study. Further, Prof Singh added, "We need to develop simple devices that the consumer can use to detect milk contamination. It should be possible to make milk adulteration detection failsafe by monitoring all of these parameters at the same time, without the need for expensive equipment." As of now, the researchers are testing a prototype smart-phone based algorithm in which the colors of the sensor strips are captured using the camera on the phone and the data is then transferred into pH (acidity) ranges.

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