IIT researchers develop smartphone-based system to detect milk adulteration

Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad, have develop smartphone-based system to detect adulteration in milk.

The detector system measures acidity in milk using an indicator paper that changes colour according to acidity. They have also developed algorithms that can be incorporated on to a smartphone to accurately detect the colour change.

IIT Professor Shiv Govind Singh, heading the research team, said, "While techniques such as chromatography and spectroscopy can be used to detect adulteration, such techniques generally require expensive set up and are not amenable to miniaturisation into low-cost easy-to-use devices. Hence, they do not appeal to the vast majority of milk consumers in the developing world."