Questionnaire survey

The majority (65%) of respondents in rural areas were female, while half of the respondents in urban areas were female. Nearly all (87.5%) of the rural residents were without formal education, and the corresponding value for urban residents was 25.8%. The major income source and livelihood of the urban respondents was based on trading (39.2%) and government employees (24.2%). On the other hand, 96.7% of the rural people were dependent on livestock keeping for their livelihood (Table 1).

Table 1 Demographic and livelihood characteristics of respondents in urban and rural areas in Borana, southern Ethiopia

Milk adulteration was believed to be a common practice in the area, where 73.1% of rural and 91.7% of urban participants of the study responded that ‘they suspect something nonmilk substance or milk of other species of animals is added to milk of cows’ before selling. According to the study participants, milk is adulterated by the addition of water and other substances, such as ‘rice or pasta water’ (murky water left after draining the cooking of pasta or rice). The study participants reported that they could check the adulteration of the milk based on their own experiences when processing and consuming the milk (e.g., clotting when boiling). Among the reported suspected reasons for increasing adulteration of milk were 1) economic reasons to earn more money, 2) the involvement of many middlemen in the market chains and 3) lack of any milk quality regulations (Table 2).

Table 2 Opinions of the sampled rural and urban residents about the practices of milk adulteration in Borana, southern Ethiopia (n = 240)Results of FGDsPerception of milk adulteration practices

The participants of the FGDs indicated that milk is not commonly adulterated by the producers in the rural pastoral and agro-pastoral communities compared to the market level. According to the discussants, milk adulteration is largely implicated to be performed at market levels.

For example, people in this town bought milk from the market, and upon boiling the milk, it formed a string or plastic-like consistency. There is no doubt that something was added to it with this type of milk. If the milk was pure (without adulteration), even if milk is in the process of changing into yogurt [soured milk”], it would not form such a chain; rather, it precipitates (FGD 1).

The discussants mentioned that cow milk is the most adulterated, as it has high selling value and demand compared to the milk of other livestock (e.g., camel milk), and the supply of cow milk is highly reduced during the dry season. On the other hand, it was mentioned that camel milk is rarely adulterated, as the volume produced is relatively high throughout the year when compared with cow milk. Like the quantitative survey, the discussants mentioned that milk marketers can add different things to cow milk, which includes pasta water (murky solution after boiling pasta), pure water, camel milk (assumed to be cheaper), corn soup, and pond water after ‘purifying’ using lime or ash and sugar solution.

According to our discussants in this study, milk producers (cow owners) are not adulterating milk, as they consider it a cultural taboo that may result in misfortunes. Generally, milk adulteration, even the addition of camel milk to cow milk, is not acceptable in Borana. However, it was stated that those engaged in milk marketing are not following those norms and tend to adulterate the milk because their interests are largely to increase the volume of milk for sale.

It was mentioned that those who carry out milk adulteration, particularly retailers, do it ‘secretly’. However, there are mechanisms to identify adulterated milk. Different techniques of identifying adulterated milk were reported by the FGD participants. One method of identification was checking the consistency of the milk immediately after boiling, where adulterated milk forms a string-like elastic consistency. The other means to detect adulterated milk was dipping the tip of the finger into the milk and then checking the flow speed (rheology) and pattern from the fingertip; the faster the milk drop supposes the milk has been adulterated by water or other fluids while pure cow milk is sluggish to flow.

Pure milk does not drop from fingertip, but milk having water added [adulterated] run down quickly [FDG 4].

As the discussants indicated, milk adulteration has no season; however, it is very high during the dry season. One of the most important types of evidence for milk adulteration in the area was that even though actual milk production fluctuates based on season and animal disease patterns, milk is marketed throughout the year. For example, during the long dry season, milk production is reduced to a very limited amount due to feed and water scarcity. However, there can still be milk supply throughout the year, which leads informants to suspect the source and quality of the milk marketed during the dry seasons.

The discussants described these as… “one thing which is very interesting that in last long dry season which even led the community to ask ‘is there even cow alive’, but people supply milk full of their containers [jerry cans] something the same with when the season is good and cows were okay. Therefore, we suspected that the traders supply milk added with something, otherwise where do they get milk even when cows struggle to survive?” [FDG 1].

As most discussants explained, milk adulteration came into practice with the starting of selling milk in the area, which in the old days was considered a taboo. In the past selling milk was feared for affecting livestock health and productivity. It was stated that people started adding foreign substances to milk (adulteration) approximately after the fall of the Dergue regime in Ethiopia [post-1991]. Milk retailers use plastic jerry cans for milk collection from producers compared to the earlier times in which traditional containers were used. It was stated that jerry-cans can collect a greater volume of milk from different households than traditional milk containers. Informants say that some time ago, ‘Abba Gadaa’ (traditional Borana leadership) cursed these plastic milk containers, which retailers used for milk transport to the market due to being inappropriate for local cleaning methods. The locals prefer traditional milk containers that can be easily cleansed by the traditional smoking method.

Perceived health impacts of adulterated milk on consumers

The respondents mentioned that consuming adulterated milk has potential health impacts largely related to the signs and symptoms of illness on consumers, particularly children, which include diarrhea, vomiting and stomach discomfort or stomachache. These problems also add to the medication expenses of the family. One respondent in group [FDG 1] described the problem as follows:

‘Milk diluted with water has no problem other than taste change, but milk added with pasta water causes stomachache and diarrhea. In addition, it causes vomiting in children. Another discussant confirmed this by saying …. ‘This causes a lot of illnesses to children such as diarrhea, vomiting, poor body condition which often complain; so, taking to clinic incurs another cost. Hence, most educated people in the town use packed or powdered milk from shops [FDG 1].

Additionally, the discussants described that when people intentionally consume a mix of camel and cow milk, they are not happy due to changes in taste.

Sources of milk and the value chain with factors aggravating milk adulteration

It was discussed that the marketed milk in the urban areas is derived from villagers and pastoralists. As they said, milk goes through three different stages before reaching consumers (Fig. 2). The main actors are producers, village-level milk collectors, intermediate traders, retailers at markets in urban areas and consumers. According to the participants of the FGDs, along the milk value chain the most points of adulteration are indicated in Fig. 2 below. Local traders collecting milk from rural areas (pastoralists) were indicated as main actor in the potential adulteration of milk and milk products.

Fig. 2

Simplified flow diagram of informal milk marketing channels in Borana

It was stated that producers themselves cannot bring milk to market for sale because they are very busy with home activities, childcare, and animal rearing. Therefore, the best option is to sell to local retailers. In addition, for most of them, the marketplace is also far from their living home. Consumers prefer pure milk, even at expensive prices, over adulterated milk at a cheap price. Adulteration of milk is still not affecting the business of the sellers, as milk production is decreasing and demand surging with no other option to feed children.

Urban residents depend on the milk brought from rural villages due to the difficulty of keeping their own cows. Lack of animal feed is a constraint to urban residents to keep cows for their own milk production. Milk bought from the market is most used for children. Because milk production progressively decreases, the accessibility of milk for adults to drink is limited. As the respondents explained, the agreement regarding milk quality is mostly based on trustship. However, retailers do not respect social norms; therefore, nothing forbids them from adulterating milk. Consumers do not know where and when people have adulterated milk. Hence, it is difficult for consumers to complain formally to local administration or regulators related to the practice of milk adulteration, as it is impossible to target them due to the absence of a fixed contact address of the sellers, and most of them are not regular suppliers. There is also no legal or cultural rule to raise complaints and ask milk sellers/retailers when they suspect milk adulteration rather than leaving to buy.