Milk adulteration Rampant in district

Milk adulteration scenario in the district is mired in cover-ups, inaction by the administration and greed. Even as almost 50 per cent of the milk coming from commercial dairies, most of which are situated at the Jamsher Dairy Complex, in Jalandhar is said to be adulterated, the number of samples failing in the district is mysteriously low, because inside sources say the guilty are often let off the hook. Half of the milk coming from dairies in Jamsher, Bulandpur, Sekhe village and Nala village is said to be adulterated. Water, skimmed milk powder, ararot powder (starch), refined oil, urea, etc., are commonly mixed with the milk. On an average, 300 dairies of the Jamsher Dairy Complex have a yield of 12,000 quintal milk per day, half of which, sources say, is adulterated. Cattle are also commonly injected with the banned ‘oxytocin’ injections to boost the yield of the milk. The milk from about 250 to 300 cooperative societies in the district is said to be relatively safer because the inherent checks in these are stringent. Of the 101 samples taken in the district in the past three years (2010 to 2012), 37 have failed. Of the total 20 milk samples taken from both urban and rural milk vendors by the Health Department in 2012 (January to September), five have failed. Of the five milk samples taken from milk vendors in August alone, two have failed. In 2011, the Health Department took a total of 62 milk samples, out of which 22 failed. In 2010 (between March 15, 2010, and August 18, 2010), 19 samples were taken by the health and dairy development board food inspectors, out of which 10 failed. As many as nine of these milk vendors (seven from Jamsher Dairy Complex and the rest from the city) were taken to court by the Dairy Development Board after their samples failed. The sources say the law was later tweaked to facilitate the dairy owners. “A complaint was registered against the erring milk vendors by food inspectors of the Health and Dairy Departments in the Sessions Court in 2010, but ironically, some dairy owners got their samples rechecked later and they were mysteriously declared passed. Currently, a case is on against only one of the said milk vendors, while the rest were let off,” said an official. While the Health Department has been operating as per the Food Safety Standard Act (FSSA), 2006, (implemented in Punjab in August 2011), before the implementation of the FSSA, the Dairy Department was working in tandem with the Health Department under the Food Adulteration Act, 1954. Confirming this, Deputy Director, Dairies, Surinder Pal Singh, said: “After the implementation of the FSSA, our department is no more authorised to check dairy samples. It is now directly under the purview of the Health Department.” Sources say since the implementation of the FSSA, the law is being soft on offenders and most samples which are even unfit for human consumption are let off by being labeled merely substandard. Blaming the Health Department-dairy owners’ nexus for rampant milk adulteration in the district, the sources say under the FSSA, the DC or the SDM delegates a food inspector to look into the matter and offenders are simply challaned even when they should be taken to court.

Fact file

- Of the 101 samples taken in the district in the past three years (2010 to 2012), 37 have failed.

- Of the total 20 milk samples taken from both urban and rural milk vendors by the Health Department in 2012 (January to September), five have failed.

- Of the five milk samples taken from milk vendors in August alone, two have failed.

- In 2011, the Health Department took a total of 62 milk samples, out of which 22 failed.

- In 2010 (between March 15, 2010, and August 18, 2010), 19 samples were taken by health and dairy development board food inspectors, out of which 10 failed.