Synthetic milk consumer awareness drive by MYP 4 students

Choithram International believes in encouraging innovation and out-of-the-box thinking. In keeping with this notion, an Industrial Chemistry workstation has been set up to help students solve real-life problems. The role of chemistry is to bridge the theoretical and practical knowledge and help common people solve their own problems.

Adulteration in food samples is a cause of concern in recent times. One such scam had come into focus in Haryana where synthetic milk was made from harmful chemicals and sold at a high price. Although the cost of making this milk from cheap raw material is not more that Rs.5, it was sold at a much higher rate of Rs.30 per litre in the market.

The MYP 4 students in the workstation were shown how such synthetic milk was made using urea, glucose, detergents, and caustic alkali. It was a surprise to see that the synthetic milk looked like normal milk. The students were also guided as to how chemistry helps in detecting fake milk from real milk.

As a part of their ‘criteria D’ (i.e. research related to scientific & technical innovation), the MYP 4 students were given the task of taking up similar local scams and think like chemists: how they will identify food adulteration and spread messages to inform consumers as a part of a consumer awareness programme.