Adulteration of Milk in India – What is the Government Doing About It?

In September 2008, several thousand babies in China became ill , having suffered acute kidney failure, with several fatalities, having been fed formula milk contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine. Twenty-two brands of milk powder were quickly identified as containing melamine and were recalled from the market. Allegedly, someone in the supply chain, milk supplier or manufacturer, was adding melamine to the milk formula to artificially inflate the reading for protein levels. In January 2009, two men were given death penalty and another life time imprisonment for their involvement in China's contaminated milk scandal. Still, the public blamed the government for its slow reaction.

Let us now look at what is happening in India in the past few months.

1. THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MARCH 9. The Centre of Indian Consumer Protection and Research (Coinpar), a consumer rights organisation in the city, which tested eight brands of milk available in the market and also milk sold by cycle vendors, has reported the presence of the chemical, formalin, in three samples.

2. KOCHI , Sept 1. Milk samples from three plants have been found to contain poisonous substances like formalin, sodium bi carbonate and sodium carbonate, leading to subsequent orders for their closure by the authorities.

3. PUNE, Sept 18. The Pune rural police busted a milk adulteration racket in Patas near Duand, about 50 km from the city, in the wee hours of Thursday by arresting a gang of six suspects. According to the police, the gang used to mix lactose powder and caustic soda in the milk to raise the degree and fat contents of the milk at a dairy named as L V Dairy. The police have also seized two tanker containing around 17,000 litre of milk, three gunny bags of lactose powder, five gunny bag containing caustic soda and five bags of the milk powder totalling to Rs 93.59 lakh.

4. LUCKNOW, Sept 26. Bulandshahar police on Friday evening arrested two persons after a total of 1,000 litres of adulterated milk was seized from them. Police also seized bulks of cheap quality glucose, pastel colours, dry milk powder, soya oil and a host of hi-tech machinery used for extracting fat from milk and packaging material.

The contamination of this sort is not just limited to milk, the chemicals reach all products that use this milk including yoghurt, sweets, cheese, ghee, butter and baby food. Regardless of crushing business pressure, there is no excuse for the adulteration of food in this way. Diluting a product with water, the old approach, is highly unethical and can lead to malnutrition, but addition of formalin can cause a number of detrimental effects .

There is no reason to imagine that we come to know about all cases of adulteration and to believe that people behind these cases are punished. Such issues seem to be of least concern to the Indian government that is struggling to sort out the food shortage issues.

Consumer Advisory : Buy milk from a trusted source. Even if you pay a little more, go for reputed brands. Your neighbour’s cow is always a better choice if you can keep an eye on what is happening after the milking process!