RESEARCH REGARDING QUALITY OF SOME POWDER MILK FORMULAS DESTINED FOR INFANTS

M.G. Usturoi, Roxana Nicoleta Raţu, Al. Usturoi, B.V. Avarvarei

Abstract
   In the last period became more and more evident the practice of some great units from food industry to make use at the so-called “double standard” for products which are delivered on own markets and respectively on other countries markets. For these reasons we aimed to study the quality conditions of powder milk destined for infants commercialized in Romania and their concordance with European Union regulations. Investigations were carried out on three powder milk formulas (under 6 month; 6-9 months; over 9 months) imported from Holland, Germany and Poland and consisted in evaluation of physical indicators (acidity, moisture content, solubility and starch presence) as well as for microbiological ones (TNG and Escherichia coli identification), using agreed methodologies. From the obtained data resulted the fact that powder milk imported from Holland had the lowest acidity (15.58-16.09oT), lower with 1.31-6.33% than the one from Germany and with 9.30-18.33% than the one from Poland, but also the lowest moisture content (3.18-3.20%), lower with 8.39-9.68% and respectively, with 19.87-22.5% than at other producers. The best solubility (99.65-99.68%) was also at milk produced in Holland, and the lowest one was obtained for milk imported from Poland (98.17-98.20%). Milk manufactured in Poland had a positive reaction for starch at two from the studied formulas and the one from Germany only at a single formula. Microbiologically speaking, only the formula destined for infants of over 9 months produced in Poland had surpassed the admissible limit for Escherichia coli. In conclusion, we could affirm that powder milk for infants commercialized in Romania fulfil the quality conditions stipulated by EU regulations.

Key words: powder milk, infants, quality, EU regulations