Review Article PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES ANALYSIS BASED APPROACHES TO ASCERTAIN THE PURITY OF GHEE-A MINI REVIEW Tanmay Hazra 1 , Vivek Sharma 2 , Priti Saha 2 and Parmar Manish Kumar Pratapsinh 1 1 College of Dairy Science, Kamdhenu University, Guj-365-601 2 National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Har-132-001 E-mail: tanmayhazra08@gmail.com Ghee, the pure clarified fat derived solely from milk or curd or from desi (cooking) butter or from cream to which no coloring matter or preservative has been added. Ghee has an integral relation with Indian social and culinary culture. Ghee is one of the premium edible fat and it has so many health benefit. Demand of ghee is increasing day by day but due to supply gap especially in lean season the producers or the middle-men involved in the ghee trade, tend to adulterate ghee with cheaper oils and fats like vegetable oils, animal body fats, hydrogenated fats and sometimes even the non-edible mineral oils. Recently, the problem of adulteration has assumed a very serious dimension. Such a situation has damage the image of dairy industry. Methods presently adopted by food law enforcing agencies to ensure the quality of ghee are mainly based on the physico-chemical analysis of ghee. In this review all physico- chemical analysis based approaches have been discussed in this review. Introduction India is the largest producer of milk in the world, producing 146.3 million metric tons (MMT) in the year 2014-15 [1]. In India, Ghee is the second largest dairy product prepared from milk [2]. According to FSSR [3] “Ghee” means the pure clarified fat derived solely from milk or curd or from desi (cooking) butter or from cream to which no coloring matter or preservative has been added. Ghee performs a major and essential function as carrier of four fat-soluble vitamins viz., A, D, E, K and essential fatty-acids such as linolenic acid and arachidonic acid, apart from having rich and pleasant sensory attributes. The producers or the middle-men involved in the ghee trade, tend to adulterate ghee with cheaper oils and fats like vegetable oils, animal body fats, hydrogenated fats and sometimes even the non-edible International Journal of Science, Environment ISSN 2278-3687 (O) and Technology, Vol. 6, No 1, 2017, 899 – 907 2277-663X (P) Received Jan 25, 2017 * Published Feb 2, 2017 * www.ijset.net