Consumer Responses to Perceptions of DCD in Milk Powder: A Case Study in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Dicyandiamide (DCD) is a chemical compound used by farmers to reduce the negative effects of greenhouse gas emission and nitrate leaching into water ways. It is a nitrogen-rich compound such as melamine which can be used as an economic food adulterant to enhance the apparent protein content of the food products. The present research was conducted to find out the consumers' awareness and knowledge regarding DCD issue recently emerged in Sri Lanka. Moreover it intended to identify whether the awareness of DCD has changed the consumers' milk consumption pattern and to verify that whether consumers have moved to fresh milk or to other alternative products. The field surveys were carried out at two selected clusters of Matara using cluster sampling technique. All families (76 families) in two selected areas were interviewed using a pre-tested structured questionnaire. Findings revealed that the majority (80%) of people are aware of DCD while out of them 7% of people were fully aware about the DCD issue. It was revealed that 67% of people have changed milk consumption pattern after awareness of DCD in milk powder. Sources of information about DCD were television (58%), newspapers (28%), radio (28%), and others such as shop keepers, relatives and internet (3%). With the awareness about the DCD consumption of imported milk powder especially Anchor and Nespray has remarkably decreased and demand for local milk powder such as ‘Palawatta’ and 'Highland' products has been increased. A few (7%) families have moved to fresh milk and (16%) families have moved to alternatives like coffee, "Beli mal” and "Kolakada” instead of milk powder. Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that there is a significant impact of the awareness about DCD in milk powder on the consumption of milk powder implying that the people pay attention on food adulteration.