The unknown mixture of milk from different species is a common fraud in the cheese sector. The different prices of milk species tends to adulterate the expensive with those of lower cost. This adulteration is especially important for cheese makers, not only for economical reasons, but also because unknown milk mixtures produce changes in the final sensory properties and reduce the product quality. Besides, cheese producers need to assure that pure cheese does not contain milk from other species for labelling purposes.

The fraudulent addition of cow´s milk during the manufacturing of water buffalo Mozzarella cheese has increased in recent years, due to the growing market demands in EU (European Union). Mozzarella cheese is registered with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) that demands it only can be made from water buffalo´s milk. Finally, the European Regulations concerning cheeses from different species milk, buffalo included, demand to verify by appropriate controls that no cow´s milk has been incorporated.

The NEW IC BUFFALO is a qualitative test to detect the presence of cow’s milk in buffalo´s milk. The kit is an immunochromatography test based on the detection of bovine immunoglobulins (IgG) in milk samples. This test can be used with fresh, pasteurised, whole or skim milk. The IC BUFFALO kit does not require any technical skills or lab equipment and can allow cheese producers to make fast decisions, which can save them money and ensure the quality of the final product.

ZEU-INMUNOTEC offers other rapid screening test kits to identify the presence of cow’s milk in sheep and goat milk (IC-Bovino), or alternatively to detect goat's milk in cow's (IC-Caprino). ELISA tests (RC-Bovino and RC-Caprino) are also available for quantification of the milk mixture.