Rapid capillary electrophoresis approach for the quantification of ewe milk adulteration with cow milk

•Ewe and cow skimmed milk proteins showed distinct CE profile in alkaline separation.•An ewe specific CE peak protein allowed the quantification of ewe milk adulteration.•CE method for ewe milk adulteration showed good linearity, precision and accuracy.

The substitution of ewe milk with more economic cow milk is a common fraud. Here we present a capillary electrophoresis method for the quantification of ewe milk in ovine/bovine milk mixtures, which allows for the rapid and inexpensive recognition of ewe milk adulteration with cow milk. We utilized a routine CE method for human blood and urine proteins analysis, which fulfilled the separation of skimmed milk proteins in alkaline buffer. Under this condition, ovine and bovine milk exhibited a recognizable and distinct CE protein profiles, with a specific ewe peak showing a reproducible migration zone in ovine/bovine mixtures. Based on ewe specific CE peak, we developed a method for ewe milk quantification in ovine/bovine skimmed milk mixtures, which showed good linearity, precision and accuracy, and a minimum amount of detectable fraudulent cow milk equal to 5%.