Milk in AP less adulterated, finds survey

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Over 68 per cent of milk in the country does not conform to the standards set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the Centre has told the Supreme Court on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) for checking sale of synthetic and adulterated milk and various dairy products. The submission has been made by the Centre in its affidavit which referred to a survey conducted by the FSSAI that had found that over 68 per cent of the “nonconforming“ milk was found in urban areas, 66 per cent of which was loose milk.

The survey showed that Andhra Pradesh had the least percentage of samples of adulterated milk.

Only 6.7 per cent of the milk samples collected from the state was adulterated.

The percentage of adulterated milk samples was 28 in Kerala, 22 in Karnataka and 12 in Tamil Nadu.

Even milk-rich states like Gujarat and the national capital, Delhi, failed the milk purity test.

Gujarat showed 89 per cent of its samples adulterated as against 78 per cent in Delhi.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority survey revealed that the most common adulterant in the milk is water, though many samples had detergent.

“Addition of water not only reduces the nutritional value of milk, but contaminated water may also pose health risk to the consumers.

Consumption of milk with detergent may cause health hazards and indicates lack of hygiene and sanitation in the milk handling,“ the report said. PIL filed on sale of synthetic milk PIL filed for checking sale of synthetic and adulterated milk and various dairy products Andhra Pradesh had least samples of adul terated milk at 6.7% The near clean chit given to Andhra Pradesh by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) notwithstanding, police continue to register many cases of adulterated milk in various districts.

The police has found that milk was prepared artificially using washing soda and other ingredients. Artificial or synthetic milk poses greater health risks to consumers. The PIL filed in SC had that the situation is alarming and posesimminent danger to public health.