Utilização de eletroforese microfluídica na detecção da adição de soro de queijo em leite cru, pasteurizado, UHT e em pó

Abstract

Dairy fraud is a problem from the economic point of view, since it causes harm to the consumer and in some cases is characterized as a public health problem, since these frauds can reduce the original nutritional components of the food or even cause microbiological contamination, chemical or physical. For this reason, methodologies aimed at proving the authenticity of dairy products have been developed. Therefore, this work aimed to evaluate the lab-on-a-chip method for the detection of fraud in cow's milk by the addition of cheese whey. Therefore, samples of raw, pasteurized, UHT and powdered milk were added with cheese whey, simulating this type of fraud, at increasing levels 0; 1; 2.5; 5; 10; 20; 30; 50% (v/v). All samples were submitted to lab-on-a-chip electrophoresis and SDS-PAGE with the aim of detecting fraud. The results obtained using the two methodologies were satisfactory regarding the separation and quantification of milk proteins. It was only possible to detect fraud from 1% addition of cheese whey to the four milk types tested by the lab-on-a-chip technique. Based on these results, it was conclude that this method can be applied as a screening mechanism for the detection of milk fraud in routines in industry laboratories. However, it is emphasized that the lab-on-a-chip technique must be submitted to a methodology validation process so that it can be used routine in milk quality laboratories.