IIT-M scholar invents sensor to check milk
With the Supreme Court raising
its concern about adulteration of milk, a research scholar from the
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) has developed a
colour-based sensor (membrane), which changes colour when the milk gets
spoilt.
Concerned over how people get
fooled by milk traders who sell spoilt milk to people, Anshika
Agarwal, a research scholar in the department of biotechnology at
IIT-M decided to come up with a solution to help people buy good quality
milk.
She started to work a year ago to solve the
problem as part of her Ph.D research. “Milk often gets spoilt before
the expiry date printed on the sachet. Keeping this in mind, I developed
a sensor which is sensitive enough to detect milk spoilage at anearly
stage,” said Agarwal, doing research in electrospinning
(electrical charge draws very fine fibres from a liquid.).
The
membrane (sensor) would be printed on the external wall
connected by a small piece of sensor, which would sense the
quality of milk and change the membrane’s colour in the sachet. “My
sensor is cost-effective and easy to incorporate in packaging system.
Prof T.S. Chandra of the Biotechnology department and Prof T.S.
Natarajan from the Physics department have helped me a lot in
developing this membrane,” she said.
K. Sekar, a
milk vendor said,“People keep complaining about the poor quality of
milk being supplied to them but now if this membrane is fixed, I am
sure we will get to know the quality of milk when its supplied to us.
Comments