Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Trends in Electronics and Informatics (ICOEI 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19J32-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-9439-8
Electrical impedance Sensor for Real-Time Detection
of Urea and Starch in Milk
Mohini Sude
Department of Instrumentation and Control,
College of Engineering, Pune.
Email - sudemg17.instru@coep.ac.in
Abstract— This paper represents the milk adulteration
technique using electrical impedance measurements.
Technical this parameter allows characterization of raw
milk tests, adulterated with various adulterants such as
drinking water, urea, and starch. The sample was
electrically analyzed by using an equivalent series circuit
for its electrical modeling. In the above-mentioned cases,
measures allowed quantitative classification of milk , this
allows the development of real-time monitoring system for
identification of other adulterants in milk content. It is
observed that as the concentration of milk adulteration
increases, voltage value decreases the conductivity and pH
value reduces. A classification of the outcomes from this
paper is proposed through phase detection circuitry.
Keywords—Milk,Adulteration,FoodTechnology,electrical
sensing devices, sensor system
I. INTRODUCTION
Milk in this regular structure has high food value. It supplies
supplements like proteins, fats, carbohydrates, nutrients and
minerals in nominal sums in an effectively good composition.
Milk is nutritious for each individual of different ages because
of its nutritive value [4].Chemical operators are often included
new steers milk for various purpose including safeguarding,
consistency, and flavor. Milk contamination is one of the
primary sources of well-being hazards around the world and
especially in developing countries such as India [1].A national
review in India has uncovered the contaminants adulterate
almost 70% of the milk sold and devoured in India, for
example, cleanser and skim milk powder, urea
(CH4N2O),Starch yet polluted water is the most elevated
contaminant[3].Around 68.7 percent of milk and milk items
sold in the nation is not according to the guideline set
somewhere around the India’s Food Safety and Standards
Authority (FSSAI)[2].
Urea is a typical milk element and amounts to about 55percent
of the total non-protein nitrogen in milk. The standard worth
of urea in cow and buffalo milk was assessed to be 40 mg to
70mg per 100ml, individually [5]. Current studies monitoring
adulteration in milk are mainly through the scientific
procedures. With the Characterization procedures, there are
Near Infra-red (NIR), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR)
978-1-5386-9439-8/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
Ketaki Ghodinde
Department of Instrumentation and Control,
College of Engineering, Pune.
Email- ssk.instru@coep.ac.in
Spectrometer, high-performance liquid chromatography
(HPLC), isotope dilution Spectrometry, and other instruments.
Here performance represents a technique for electrical
impedance to quality milk. Usually, electrical impedance is
measured by applying an ac potential to an electrochemical
cell and then measuring the current through the cell. This
current may be analyzed as a sum of the sinusoidal function.
Using an equivalent circuit model , electrical impedances are
analyzed, the circuit elements in the model are electrical
element such as resistance and reactance. The experiment is
performed initially with cost-effective equipment and
furthermore with the phase detection circuit.
II. METHODOLOGY
This part of the paper shows the block diagram of the system
designed to observe pure milk adulteration with various types
of adulterants. It incorporates a circuit for sensor and signal
conditioning.
A. Design of sensor
The sensor is SAE 316 Stainless steel rod type two terminal
devices shown in Fig 1, the angle of phase between the 2
terminals is measured when immersed in a medium. For
assurance of various milk contamination, the sensor must be
immersed in the milk sample as its impedance changes have
been seen in the sensor response with the milk test [12]. The
angle of the phase shift is changed when the milk sample is
adulterated with different adulterants. Sensor output is
calculated in terms of voltage. At controlled room
temperature, hardware evaluation was performed at
frequencies ranging from 10 KHz to 10MHz.
Voltage
Display
SAE 316 rod
Milk
Fig 1. Block system Diagram
431
 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Trends in Electronics and Informatics (ICOEI 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19J32-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-9439-8

Constant with or without adulteration. Hence, the frequency at

around at 90 kHz was used as the operational frequency for
the characterization of respective units.

Fig 2.Calibration sensor response

B. Calibration
The sensor’s accuracy, sensitivity, resolution reproducibility,
and repeatability are checked for calibration purpose at 90
Fig 3. Frequency response of Reactance for sample
kHz.
The signal is measured with TBS1102B-EDU Digital
Oscilloscope (DSO) after dipping two sensor rod of 20 mm,
spaced by 10 mm in a different test sample .The experiment is
conducted on pure milk and adulterated milk with different
amounts of urea and starch. For evaluation purposes, the
frequency of the sinusoidal signal is changed from 10kHz to
10MHz with a voltage of 1Vp-p.The above procedure is
repeated to check the repeatability, accuracy, and the precision
values considered for the examination Fig 2, shows the
sinusoidal waveform as a sensor input and output as sinusoidal
waveform (Blue color-input, yellow color- output).

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

These measures pointed for verification of the frequency
ranges in which the impedance of the contaminated milk
displays the essential changes comparative to the pure milk. A
standard way of showing the impedance of the components is
with the consolidated results of reactance and resistance [8].
Fig 3 represent the graph for adulteration, showing the data of
every individual cases of addition of different quantities of
adulterants. High-frequency actions outcomes from the load-
transfer process via the milk and adulterant combination, the
behavior is attributed to the diffusion of the ions for the low-
frequency range [10]. Fig 3 shows that for all frequency range,
the variation of reactive elements of pure and mixed
adulterated milk remained low. Reactive impedance is
decreasing as the frequency increases. This suggests that a
resistive model can detect raw and impure milk. These results
are mostly obtained by the number of the ions present in the
milk [9].
In Fig 4. Graph shows the resistive portion of the impedance
that frequency function. A delta change in resistive component
value is checked as the frequency, which is improved. For low
and middle frequency ranges between 10 kHz to10 MHz the
reaction from the resistive portion of the lower and higher
frequency ranges remained almost
Fig 4. Electrical impedance values with frequency
A. Electrical impedance Characterization of the phase
detector circuit
The phase angle changes due to milk adulterations that can be
followed by the sensor output signal are transformed by the
signal conditioning circuit into a voltage. The system is used
as a phase detector circuit [7, 11]. Two adulteration varieties
are considered for detection. Pure milk is contaminated by
urea and starch. The phase detector circuit used for the
detection system [7, 11]. A low-pass filter (LPF) is added to
this circuit to generate an ac voltage proportional to the
specific pulse width [5]. By comparing the sensor output with
a phase detector circuit, the milk tests are examined and it was
observed that the voltage is linear, when the frequency range
changes in between 30-100 kHz. The voltage value from the
90 kHz signal conditioning circuit is shown in table I as it is
plotted in Fig 5. As the percentage of milk adulteration
increases, the voltage value of the phase detector circuit
decreases. In Fig 6. Different percentages of milk
adulteration. It is observed that as the concentration of milk
adulteration increases, the voltage value decreases, the value
of conductivity and pH decreases.

978-1-5386-9439-8/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE 432

 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Trends in Electronics and Informatics (ICOEI 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19J32-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-9439-8

Once system is calibrated, milk Characterization measures can

be made. Fig 7, Fig 8 concludes the experiments on pure milk
with percentage of adulteration.

Fig 8.Input voltage vs. output voltage Waveform

Fig 5. Voltage output vs Different milk adulteration

TABLE I. ADULTERATED MILK WITH UREA AND STARCH AT 90 KHZ

Sample Output pH value Conductivity
voltage(v)

Pure milk 1.837 6.6 4.650mS

Urea 1.461 6.28 4.580mS

Starch 1.345 5.91 4.734mS

IV. CONCLUSION

This paper show the modified approach for milk adulteration

Fig 6.Voltage vs. percentage of adulteration
was performed measuring the electrical impedance between
the sensors. Impedance analysis, which shows that
adulteration mostly changes in the resistive part of the
electrical impedance. The 90 kHz frequency also performed
the best selection for examine milk adulteration. The phase
detector circuit invariably represents the variation in angle of
the phase and gives output voltage. The sensor output is
recorded at 90 kHz, as this is middle of the30-100 kHz
frequency range where the op-amp works in properly and the
sensor works as a constant phase element. It is concluded that
the system provides consistent results related to the detection
of typical milk adulteration.

Fig 7. Phase detector output Waveform

978-1-5386-9439-8/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE 433

 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Trends in Electronics and Informatics (ICOEI 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19J32-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-9439-8
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