ABSTRACT

Twenty un-processed raw milk and twenty commercial milk brands of three categories of processed milk, namely, pasteurized in the sealed pouches, loose pasteurized and ultra heat treatment (UHT), available in market were investigated for the quality. The parameters used to assess the nutritional quality of collected sample were pH, titrable acidity, fat, protein, lactose and solid not fat (SNF), total bacterial count, total coliforms, faecal coliforms and E.Coli. The nutritional limits of five UHT brands were noted to be in conformity with Pakistan Pure Food standards i.e. 3.1% fat, 3.2% protein and 4.3 % lactose. The unprocessed milk was found to be highly adulterated with water and showed significantly low fat and total solids contents (2.9 and 7.0% respectively). The results obtained were compared with international standard quoted for normal milk as mentioned in Pakistan Pure Food laws. The bacteriological standards of raw and pasteurized milk did not meet the required standards where as the UHT milk was also found to be the best in bacteriological quality. It was found from comparison that only UHT milk brands meet the requirements of national quality standard, whereas both the categories of pasteurizes milk brands and unprocessed raw milk offered no advantage over the UHT milk.

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