Bioimpedance sensor to detect water content in milk based on van Der Pauw method

Milk fraud poses serious problems for the dairy industry and consumers' health. The main aim of this study was to reveal the effect of water added to milk by measuring its electrical impedance spectrum. The required sensor was designed based on the van der Pauw method to measure the electrical conductivity of milk at the frequency band of 10 Hz to 5 MHz. The bioimpedance spectrum of the milk of five different cows showed that the electrical impedance spectrum has a high potential for detecting water added to the milk (P < 0.01). The area under the Nyquist curve was introduced as a suitable index to detect water-added milk. In addition, the characteristic frequency of the bioimpedance spectrum was used as an important index to differentiate water-added milk from waterless milk. An electrical model was introduced to interpret the amount of water added to the milk using the characteristic frequency. Results showed that it is possible to detect raw milk from boiled milk by measuring its electrical impedance.