Diwali 2020 : 6 Best ways to quality check of Mawa or Khoya during Dhanteras and Diwali

दिवाळी असो किंवा कोणताही सण गोडाधोडाच्या पदार्थांशिवाय कोणताही सण अपूर्ण असतो. धनत्रयोदशी, लक्ष्मीपूजनानंतर भाऊबीज या सणांना जास्तीत जास्त मिठाई, पेढे, बर्फी मोठ्या प्रमाणात विकत घेतले जातात. अनेकदा बाजारातून असे दुधाचे आणि माव्याचे पदार्थ विकत घेताना फस

The Food Standards and Safety Authority (FSSAI) had also suggested a simple trick to find out if your khoya is adulterated with starch. All you need to do is take a little bit of the mawa you have recently bought from a store and put it in some hot water. Add a little bit of iodine to this water and if the mawa turns blue after coming in contact with the iodine, it has starch in it. If not, then it's good to go

Another simple test is one which involves checking a sample of mawa at the time of purchase itself. Pure, fresh and unadulterated mawa has an oily and grainy texture, tastes slightly sweet and leaves a trail of grease, when rubbed on your palm. So before you buy it, all you need to do is to take a pinch from the stock and rub it in palm, to check for sweetness or tartness. If it tastes odd, that is probably because it is adulterated with foreign substances.

You can also use sulphuric acid to test presence of certain chemicals like formalin (a preservative) in milk or mawa. Take a bit of sample in a container and add some concentrated sulphuric acid to it. If there's formation of a bluish or violet colour in the sample, then it may be adulterated with formalin.

These days a lot of sweet shops add vanaspati in mithais, which is not good for health if consumed in big quantity. To check if milk is adulterated with vanaspati, all you have to do is to add 2 tbps of hydrochloric acid and 1 tbsp of sugar to 1 tbsp of milk. If the mixture turns red, its impure.

To increase the shelf life of sweets, makers of mithai, formalin is used for preservation purposes. It is transparent and can preserve milk for long time

To test for formalin existence in milk, just take a small piece pf mitahi and put 2-3 drops of sulphuric acid into it. If a blue ring appears at the top, milk is adulterated else not.

7. Eating sweets made from fake mava can cause food poisoning, vomiting and stomach ache. Items made from fake yeast can pose a threat to the kidneys and liver.

To make consumers aware of the rampant adulteration of this very commonly used ingredient in sweets, there are some mawa testing kits available for people to use on their mawa samples during Diwali.