Study reveals 100 % milk in State adulterated

In a shocking revelation, a Government study has found that the milk available in Odisha market is hundred per cent adulterated. The milk, contaminated with substances like salt and detergent, is bad for health, the study reveals.

The National Survey on Milk Adulteration, 2011 was conducted by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to determine the quality of milk and identify different types of adulteration in liquid milk throughout India, the biggest milk producer of the world. It found 70 per cent of milk adulterated nationwide. While 100 per cent milk adulteration was found in Odisha, the study revealed that the adulterated substances included skimmed milk powder (SMP), SNF, fat, glucose, detergent and added water.

Besides Odisha, other States including Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Daman and Diu, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Mizoram were found with100 per cent milk adulteration whereas the entire samples from Goa and Puducherry conformed to the standards.

All 1,791 samples collected from different sources were sent to the Department of Food and Drug Testing of the Government of Puducherry, Central Food Laboratory at Pune, Food Research and Standardisation Laboratory at Ghaziabad, State Public Health Laboratory at Guwahati and Central Food Laboratory at Kolkata for testing.

Only 565 samples (31.5 per cent) milk passed the test. More than 1,226 samples (68.4 per cent) were declared as contaminated. One hundred and three samples were found with detergent substance, 548 samples SMP and 477 samples contained glucose substance. In urban India, 68.9 per cent samples were found to be contaminated, compared with 31 per cent of samples in rural area.

The State Government on Wednesday ordered for testing of all packet milk being sold in the market, including that of the milk packaged by the State-owned Omfed to determine milk standard.

Reacting to the report that milk sold in packets in Odisha, Bihar and West Bengal are most contaminated and substandard, Fishereies and Animal Resources Development Secretary Satyabrata Sahu said the findings of the report would be studied. However, he sought to know the basis of the study undertaken and the places from where the milk samples were collected.