Abstract:
A study was conducted to evaluate the extent of water adulteration of milk produced and marketed in Morogoro municipality in Tanzania. A total of 90 milk samples were collected from institutional, private and smallholder farms and milk vendors, The samples were analysed for lactometer reading (LR), butterfat (BF), solids-not-fat (SNF) and total solids (TS). Overall adulteration (AD) was calculated as the difference between SNF of standard/genuine milk obtained at the farm gate and respective milk samples, It was observed that lactometer reading for the farm milk ranged from 25: 32 to 26.75 and was significantly higher (P<0, 05) than vendors' milk, which ranged from 23.01 to 23.58 L. The butter fat content for farm milk which ranged from 3.56 to 4.12 % was significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of the vendors' milk that ranged from 2.86 to 3.03%. The SNF content for farm milk ranged from 7.18 to 7.67 % and was significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of vendors' milk, which ranged from 6.47 to 6.63 %. Furthermore, TS of farm milk which ranged from 10.81 to 11.87% was significantly higher (P<0.05) than vendors' milk, which ranged from 9.38 to 9.74% The overall adulteration for farm milk ranged from 6.57 to 9.48% and was significantly lower than that of vendors 'milk, which ranged from 19.28 to 21.13 %. It was concluded that water adulteration of milk in Morogoro municipality was rampant and starts from the farm level. Therefore, there is a need for the Government to educate dairy farmers, milk vendors and the consumers on the importance of producing, selling and consuming respectively un-adulterated milk
