# Review and documentation of adulteration in camel milk

Bernard Faye, Gaukhar Konuspayeva, Sergei Kiselev, Peter Nagy

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Bernard Faye, Gaukhar Konuspayeva, Sergei Kiselev, Peter Nagy. Review and documentation of adulteration in camel milk. Journal of the Global Food Regulatory Science Society, 2025, 1 (2), pp.22-27. hal-05359795

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Submitted on 12 Nov 2025

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# Review and Documentation of Adulteration in Camel Milk

Bernard Faye<sup>a,*</sup>, Gaukhar Konuspayeva<sup>b,*</sup>, Sergei Kiselev<sup>c,*</sup>, Peter Nagy<sup>d,*</sup>

<sup>a</sup> Center of International Cooperation on Agriculture Research for Development–CIRAD, UMR SELMET, Campus International de Baillarguet, CEDEX 5, 34398 Montpellier, France.

<sup>b</sup> Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, 71 avenue Al-Farabi, 050040 Almaty, Kazakhstan.

<sup>c</sup> Head of Research and Development, Al-Ain Farms, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

<sup>d</sup> Emirates Industry for Camel Milk and Products Ltd., PO. Box 294236, Dubai, UAE.

* Correspondence: bijfaye50@gmail.com, konuspayevags@hotmail.fr, sergei.kiselev@alainfarms.com, peter@camelicious.ae

## Abstract

Camel milk, valued for its rich nutritional composition and absence of β-lactoglobulin, is increasingly recognized for its health benefits and functional properties. However, the sector faces persistent challenges related to adulteration and authenticity assurance. This review compiles scientific and industry evidence demonstrating that camel milk is among the most fraud-prone foods globally, with intentional blending of 10–30 % cow or goat milk, dilution with water, and substitution of milk fat frequently reported. Such practices distort markets and may expose allergic consumers to bovine allergens. The paper summarizes detection methods, including immunological assays, DNA-based species identification, spectroscopic and chemometric techniques, and freezing-point analysis, and identifies knowledge gaps in establishing validated reference values specific to camel milk. The findings highlight the need for harmonized authenticity criteria and international standardization, which would support regulators, producers, and laboratories in safeguarding consumer trust and promoting fair trade in camel-milk products.

**Keywords:** fraud, adulteration, camel milk substitution, cow milk, Beta Lactoglobulin.

## Introduction

Renowned for its unique nutritional composition; rich in immunoglobulins, the absence of beta-lactoglobulin and presence of essential micronutrients such vitamin C, D, iron, zinc, camel milk is increasingly recognized for its health effects relative to several disorders such as diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and lactose intolerance (Ansari et al., 2024). Despite these advantages, the camel milk industry faces systemic challenges that threaten its scalability and consumer trust.

## Adulteration in Camel Milk

Adulteration of milk and dairy products is a global concern. Camel milk is considered as the second most likely food item in the risk of adulteration after olive oil (Calvanoet et al., 2012).

Adulteration and all types of fraudulent addition of camel milk is a problem in most countries. Camel milk costs 2–10 times more than cow milk. Since camel milk has a high nutritional value and diverse bioactivity characteristics, adulteration with other less expensive milk (as cow or goat milk) is common.
Apart from economic loss, such adulteration can create serious consequences for individual health, specifically among those who are allergic to cow milk or making lactose intolerance. According to a study carried out by Hui Yang et al. (2025), using DNA-based species identification to detect adulteration: out of 80 field samples, 66.67% of hand-milked samples contained cow milk, whereas mechanically milked samples showed significantly lower adulteration rates. The adulteration was typically intentional, involving 10–30% cow milk to increase volume without visibly altering camel milk characteristics.

Therefore, methods are urgently required to assess the authenticity of camel milk and its products to protect consumers from such fraudulent practice.

Qing Liang et al. (2025) reported that profit-motivated adulteration through blending with lower-cost milk sources (e.g., cow or goat milk) or dilution with water distorts markets. More critically, cross-species milk protein allergens introduced through adulteration threaten the safety of sensitized populations. The authors propose a novel, non-destructive method to detect adulteration (fraud) in camel milk using dielectric spectroscopy combined with deep learning / chemometric models.

## Possible Types of Adulteration in Camel Milk

Among other species milks, camel milk is considered as being the most prone to adulteration due to its high price, demand, and nutritional value, because camel milk and camel milk products are more expensive than milk and milk products obtained from other milk producing animals, therefore, there are several possible ways to adulterate camel milk and camel milk products, such as the following:

* Added cow or goat milk to camel milk, therefore the methodology used to detect this kind of adulteration must detect the presence of beta-lactoglobulin, present in milk from cow or goat but not in camel milk (Shi-Xin Chi et al. 2024). The detection of beta-lactoglobulin can be done with simple and cheap Radial Immunological Diffusion (RID) technique, a method developed in the years 90, but unfortunately never commercialized despite its interest in field detection.

* Added water to increase camel milk volume: the methodology used to detect this kind of adulteration, is to test the freezing point of the camel milk (Konuspayeva, et al (2023). Until now no specific freezing point was well define for camel milk, because of used equipment's values change, and no data regarding level of added water is reported yet.
* Added vegetable fat to camel milk, therefore the methodology which may be used to detect this kind of camel milk adulteration, is the detection of phytocholesterol (Nurseitova et al., 2019).

## Industry Reporting of Camel Milk Adulteration

As per a communication with a main producer in a rural production area in Asia, a cooperative system of production is in place, giving rise to several adulteration cases:

* Mixing milk: Camel milk is collected or gathered from nomad farmers having no awareness about the consequences of mixing milk from different species. Also, farmers having a herd of 5-7 lactating animals (goat-cow-buffalo-camels), invariably, they used to mix the sheep and goat milk with the camel milk collected by the dairy factory resulting in rejections at the plant or collection centres.

* Adding Chemicals: due to long distances from farms to the collection points, farmers use some chemicals to preserve milk until reaching the collection point since there is no cold equipment for transportation.

## Conclusion

In the absence of an international standard for camel milk that defines its specific compositional parameters, there are no internationally agreed minimum quality requirements. Most non-camel-milk-producing countries rely only on general safety parameters, which do not account for the unique characteristics of camel milk. Therefore, it is challenging to the official control authorities as well as producers to determine the adulteration cases by well adapted tools for camel milk. In this regard, both national authorities, producers and manufacturers will benefit from the development of an international standard for camel milk. The standard will help harmonize production conditions and create a level playing field, providing consistent guidance for producers and regulators worldwide.

## References

Ansari, F.; Pourjafar, H.; Samakkhah, S.A.; Mirzakhani, E. An overview of probiotic camel milk as a nutritional beverage: Challenges and perspectives. Food Sci. Nutr. 2024, 12, 6123-6141.

Jayamanna Mohottige, M.W.; Juhasz, A.; Nye-Wood, M.G.; Farquharson, K.A.; Bose, U.; Colgrave, M.L. Beyond nutrition: Exploring immune proteins, bioactive peptides, and allergens in cow and Arabian camel milk. Food Chem. 2025, 467, 142471.
Souhassou et al (2018). Detection of camel milk adulteration using Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy FT-IR coupled with chemometrics methods. International Food Research Journal, 25(3).

Boukria, et al (2023). Evaluation of the adulteration of camel milk by non-camel milk using multispectral image, fluorescence and infrared spectroscopy. Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, 300, 122932.

Li, et al. (2021). Detection of the adulteration of camel milk powder with cow milk by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC). International Dairy Journal, 121, 105117.

Ait El Alia, et al. (2025). Raman Spectroscopy Coupled with Chemometric Techniques for Authenticity Assessment of Camel Milk Powder. Journal of AOAC International, qsaf075.

Konuspayeva, et al (2023). Some variation factors of freezing point in camel milk. Animals, 13(10), 1657

Konuspayeva, et al. (2023). What are the challenges for implementing an “organic label” to camel milk? Frontiers in Nutrition, 10, 1288553).

Nurseitova, et al., (2019). Comparative study of fatty acid and sterol profiles for the investigation of potential milk fat adulteration. J. Dairy Sci., 102(9), 7723-7733,

Qing Liang et al. (2025). An efficient detection method for camel milk quality based on dielectric spectroscopy technology. Journal of Dairy Science, Volume 108, Issue 10, October 2025, Pages 10617-10630

Shi-Xin Chi et al. (2023). Development of an ELISA method to determine adulterated cow milk in camel milk. International Dairy Journal, Volume 155, August 2024, 105953.

Hui Yang et al. (2025). Risk Prevention and Quality Control in Camel Milk Collection: Insights from Field Research. Foods 2025, 14(7), https://doi.org/10.3390/foods14071090