Markets are now selling more adulterated items. Original food items without adulteration are hard to find. Paneer is also treated with chemicals and other things these days. In the market, it has become difficult to differentiate between original and lower-quality paneer. There are three ways to identify fake paneer in this article.
For vegetarians, dishes made of paneer are the first choice. But many types of adulteration are being done in paneer which will look real but consuming it can cause illness in the body. This paneer is no less than a slow poison.
Skimmed milk powder, and detergent are added to adulterated paneer which helps in making paneer white. Sulphuric acid is added which helps in giving the right texture and shape to the paneer. Paneer is smoothed with palm oil. A solution of these ingredients is made and it is torn with baking powder and paneer is cut into pieces and sold.
There are 3 ways to identify an adulterated paneer:
- Mash a piece of paneer with your hand and see if the paneer starts breaking apart, then understand that it is a fake adulterated paneer. Adulterated paneer made from skimmed milk powder cannot bear much pressure, so it breaks apart.
- Boil the paneer and sprinkle soybean or pigeon pea powder on it and after 10 minutes if the color of the paneer turns red, it means that detergent or urea has been mixed in it.
- Put drops of iodine tincture on the paneer, if the color of the paneer turns dark black, or blue, then it is clear that the paneer is adulterated. The color is dark because the starch content in that paneer is high.
The price of real paneer is around 400 rupees per kg, whereas the cost of making adulterated paneer is only 120 rupees, which is sold to shopkeepers in bulk for 150 rupees per kg and the same shopkeepers sell it to customers for 300 to 400 rupees per kg. If any shopkeeper sells cheese at a cheap rate it means it is adulterated cheese.
