Effect of pasteurization and conventional processing on endosulfan spiked raw buffalo milk

Endosulfan, an organochlorine insecticide/acaricide is used abundantly across north-west India. Of the many milk products used daily in the Indian household, ghee and curd is in-vogue throughout the sub-continent. Consumption of pasteurized milk in Indian mass is also gaining momentum. The numerous pharmacological studies till date reveal that the removal of the molecule from the food chain is not viable; hence, it is better to study the fate of the molecule during various processing of milk. So the present study was conducted to evaluate the fate of the molecule during processing of milk. Study was conducted on 60 samples of raw buffalo milk procured from different sources of Hisar district of Haryana. Endosulfan @ 200 ppm, was spiked to milk samples, which were processed to make ghee and curd and also pasteurized. The gas–liquid chromatogram (GC-ECD) analysis revealed that there was non-significant change in the endosulfan residue level in ghee. Statistically significant (p < 0.05) decrease was observed for both curd and pasteurized milk samples. Percentage reduction of total endosulfan was 2.46 ± 0.157, 15.130 ± 0.637 and 51.94 ± 0.63 for ghee, curd and pasteurized milk, respectively.