India sets new rules to curb milk adulteration

INDIA – The Food Safety Department in Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) has directed that all milkmen will have to be registered with the department, carry an official identity card and a lactometer with them.

This is part of the new measures the department has come up with to contain food adulterators in Bhind, infamous for the adulteration in the dairy products such as milk and mawa.

Mawa is another dairy product that has been produced in mass quantities and is exported to major cities in the state as well as the country. Adulteration in mawa has been a major issu.

The major reason of this adulteration has been identified as non-disclosure of the milkmen. There are over 4000 milkmen in the district and none of them are registered with any organisation of any sort which makes it easier for them to mix water and other substances to adulterate the dairy products.

The issuing of identity card to milkmen will provide the consumers a confidence that the milkmen are registered with the department and are not adulterating the product as they will be required to check the produce before selling it.

The lactometer will be used by the milkmen to measure the quality of the milk and the amount of adulteration if any.

Between January and August 31, the Food Safety Department registered FIRs against nine individuals in the district for adulteration.

Additionally, three people have been booked under the National Security Act (NSA). According to department data, 326 samples were collected over the eight-month period, of which 51 samples failed quality tests. Among these, 23 failed samples were related to dairy products such as milk, Mawa, and Paneer.

There has also been a heated argument about the use of detergent in for of food adulteration in India that have gone viral, recently.

A CSE report published in 2012 supported claims that detergent was indeed being mixed into milk. These adulterants are hazardous and cause irreversible damage to the organs.

The Indian Council of Medical Research had mentioned in one of its earlier reports that detergents in milk caused food poisoning and gastrointestinal complications. It can also cause irreversible damage to the organs.

It all started when an entrepreneur Ram (@ramprasad_c) on X, who was into manufacturing liquid detergent — recalled what one of his sales executives told him in 2005.

“On food safety in India, here is a story that shocked me. Many years ago, I launched a new liquid detergent while working at a large company. One of the sales guys came up to me and said, he’d have sold a lot more if the fragrance wasn’t so strong,” Ram wrote.

When asked if any customer had given any feedback regarding the fragrance, the sales executive said that a lot of people bought liquid detergents to add to milk.

Apparently, it made the milk look whiter and frothier. He also claimed that a rival company had a similar product with a mild fragrance and that such customers preferred to use it instead.

“I told the guy we aren’t changing the product. I stopped consuming lassi, and yoghurt from those markets after that,” Ram said.

In 2016, then Union minister for science and technology Harsh Vardhan had told the Lok Sabha that two out of three Indians drink milk laced with detergent, caustic soda, urea and paint. He underscored the country’s struggle with adulteration of food items by unscrupulous traders.

More recently, popular spice brands MDH and Everest were banned by Singapore and Hong Kong due to quality concerns.

India’s food safety regulator has initiated further probe into the products of spice makers MDH and Everest as review of the popular brand intensifies, a report said on June 14.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India is also likely to penalise the Indian firms for “unsafe spices”, CNBC-TV18 said in a report.

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