A milkman adds a very small amount of baking soda to fresh milk.
(a) Why does he shift the pH of the fresh milk from 6 to slightly alkaline?
(b) Why does this milk take a long time to set as curd?
a) When the milk is made more alkaline by adding a base to it, it is basically done to prevent it for more time to turning to curd. That’s why milkman shifts the pH of fresh milk to slightly
alkaline by adding a very small amount of baking soda to it as baking soda is alkaline in nature and it neutralizes the acidic nature of milk.
b) As this milk is slightly more alkaline than other, therefore, acid
produced to set into curd will be neutralized by baking soda added by
milkman. Hence, this milk takes a longer time to set as curd.