Milk adulterators flourish with limited crackdown

Bhubaneswar: The menace of adulteration of packaged milk in Odisha seems to be continuing unabated as the food safety departments at the district levels detect these cases every year. However, Odisha lagging behind other states in conducting tests of milk samples has become a matter of concern.

According to statistics from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), proved cases of adulteration and misbranding are found in Odisha every year during random checks undertaken by the state food safety departments, which are mandated to check the adulteration cases in food and beverages under the Food Safety Act.

Statistics from the FSSAI claim that in 2015-16, Odisha Food Safety department analysed 14 milk samples and found five of them adulterated. Similarly, in 2016-17 more such cases of violation of food safety rules were brought to the limelight. During this period out of 25 milk samples eight were found to be adulterated/misbranded.

In 2017-18, eight samples of milk were tested out of which three were found be adulterated/misbranded. However, statistics claimed that the Food Safety department refrained from filing legal cases against them to either send them to jail or to penalise them for their faults.

However, the samples tested by the state department as against many other states are less. For example, while Odisha tested merely 14 samples of milk in 2015-16 other states set examples by conducting massive searches. While Andhra Pradesh tested 205 milk samples during the same period, Gujarat tested 916 samples and Maharashtra a whopping 1,171 samples to find out if the milk sold in the market are fit for consumption or not.

Unlike Odisha, there are also several other states which also showed the way to crack down on milk adulterators by undertaking legal proceedings against them. For example: Gujarat filed 60 cases when it found 80 such violations, Madhya Pradesh 181 legal cases and Uttar Pradesh 1,621 legal cases against food safety violators.

FSSAI and its state units had conducted a Nationwide Qualitative Screening of milk samples for on-spot qualitative and quantitative analysis of milk samples for quality parameters like Fat, Solids-Not-Fat (SNF), added water, protein content and safety parameters and 13 adulterants, antibiotics, pesticides and Aflatoxin M1 covering around 1,100 towns across the country.

BOX: MILK STANDARD TESTING IN 2017-18