Evaluation of the Physicochemical Properties of Different Imported Milk Brands Offered in Afghanistan Markets

Abstract

Milk is an enriched food that humans widely consume. It is the source of many nutrients like protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. The content of high-quality milk should match that of natural milk and national and international standards. In the current study, the quality of selected imported milk brands (Pak1, Pak2, Pak3, Pak4, and Ir1) and local cow milk in the markets of Kabul City was evaluated. For this purpose, the levels of protein, fat, total solid, solid not fat, acidity, pH, and specific gravity were measured. Data analysis was conducted using the Kruskal-Wallis test in GraphPad Prism software. Our findings showed that the protein level in imported brands was significantly lower than the standard of cow milk (p<0.01). Among imported brands, the protein level in Ir1 and Pak4 was higher than other brands and the standard (p<0.05). The level of fat in Pak2 and Pak3 was higher than the standard and other brands (p<0.05), the level of total solid in Ir1 was lower than the standard (p<0.05), and the level of solid not fat in Pak2 and Pak3 was lower than the standard (p<0.05). Our results showed that local cow milk has a higher quality than imported milk brands, and among the brands, Pak4 has a higher quality than other brands, where its quality is almost the same as the composition of local cow milk.