In wake of issues pertaining to milk adulteration, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture has issued directions for the states/UTs to tackle the problem gravely. Talking strongly over the cases of milk adulteration in the past where the samples were found not to be conforming to the norms of Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006, the Minister for Health, JP Nadda said; penal actions including life imprisonment would be initiated against the offenders.
As enactment of provisions of the act rests with the states/UTs, the Department of Health and Family Welfare has requested them to finalize action plan to draw and test samples of milk at regular intervals. The Food Safety Officers of concerned locations would be responsible for collecting random samples from the milk parlors and sending it to laboratories for testing.
India’s apex body for food safety, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had conducted a nationwide survey in 2011 to check adulteration in milk and its products. Wherein a total of 1791 samples were gathered from 33 states and tested in government laboratories.
In the survey, 68.4% of the samples were found to be not complying with the standards as laid under the FSA. Out of total tamples 5.75% (103) were found to be adulterated with detergents. Contaminants such as urea and detergents are used to give viscosity to the milk and also act as preservatives.
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has already developed a new colour based technology to detect the presence of detergents in milk. On the basis of which the Parliamentary panel has suggested the government to popularize this new and handy technology.
The technology has already been transferred to several cooperatives including Rajasthan Cooperative Dairy Federation, Mother Dairy and Havmor Ice-cream Ltd. Mother Dairy has agreed on bringing the technology into the market, however it is not recommended to be used at home due to presence of hazardous chemicals.
It is important for India to overcome the problem of milk adulteration as soon as possible, as it is the largest producer of milk and its products. And a large amount of which is exported worldwide. India produces nearly 130-140 million tonnes a year.