Soon, ID cards for milkmen and lessons on milk purity

On World Milk Day on June 1, FDA will ensure milk vendors have identity cards, broadcast a radio jingle, compose a caller tune, and take strict action against adulterators

Look before you sip! FDA has vowed to enforce tougher measures for milk distributors and vendors found contaminating milk packets. Pic/Sayed Sameer Abedi

In June, don’t be surprised if you see your milkman sporting an identity card or hear a radio jingle about milk adulteration or a caller tune informing you of ways to identify original milk packets. To celebrate World Milk Day on June 1, the ministry of food and drug administration (FDA) will embark on a month-long campaign to make consumers aware of various ways to identify milk adulteration. FDA has vowed to enforce tougher measures for milk distributors and vendors found contaminating milk packets.
As part of its varied measures, FDA has made it mandatory for distributors to issue identity cards to all their vendors. It’s planning to broadcast a radio jingle as well. “Soon after our meeting with the representatives of cooperative milk federations and private agencies engaged in the dairy business, FDA minister Satej alias Bunty D Patil decided on the campaign and resolved to take it to new heights,” said Suresh Deshmukh, joint commissioner (food).
“It is the job of the distributor to issue identity cards to respective vendors. We request consumers to buy milk from only registered vendors and distributors, as chances of adulteration will be minimal due to the stringent quality checks that the department will be undertaking,” said Deshmukh. “We have also decided to compose a radio jingle that will educate listeners about the new food safety standards act, and how one should only buy products from registered vendors,” he said. Apart from the jingle, the department has also decided to equip its employees’ mobile phones with a caller tune that will instruct consumers on the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) Act.
“Whosoever calls any FDA official, they will hear this caller tune. Also, pamphlets will be distributed to all vendors and distributors, educating them about the FSSAI laws, and how to identify genuine milk packets from adulterated ones,” said Deshmukh. Apart from the awareness campaign, FDA is also planning to come down heavily on unscrupulous milk vendors and distributors. “We are going to conduct surprise checks on milk units starting next month, and we will collect samples of milk from them. Stern action will be taken against vendors if found guilty.”
Identifying adulteration
>> Always see if your milk packets are curved at the end, as these are the genuine ones.
>> Drop a little milk on a slightly tilted flat surface, if the milk runs down immediately then the chances of water being mixed in it are high.
>> Make sure that your vendor has an FDA licence, and an identity card certified by his distributor. 

Proprietary foods definition must be modified in petty FBOs' interests

The definition of proprietary foods as per the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006, must be changed to protect the interests of petty food business operators (FBOs), according to an Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) official on strict condition of anonymity.

As per Section 22 (4) of the FSSA, proprietary or novel food means an article of food for which standards have not been specified but is not unsafe. As per Regulation 2.12.1 of the Act, proprietary food means a food that has not been standardised under these regulations.

According to the official, the definition of proprietary foods, given in the Act, is a misnomer. “If existing traditional or ethnic foods are called proprietary or non standard foods, their manufacturers, who are mostly petty FBOs who have been in business for decades, will incur huge losses. They are not proprietary foods. Also, it is unfair to expect them to obtain approvals on their wares,” he said.

Neither were standards formulated in the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA) and Rules, 1954, for the manufacture of traditional or ethnic foods, nor were any approvals needed for the same. But they were defined as proprietary foods.

“A food item manufactured by more than one person cannot be termed as proprietary foods. In the larger interest, it is suggested the definition of proprietary food be amended in the Act, Rules and Regulations, and should be as follows: A proprietary food is a food which is legally made only by a person or a body of persons having special rights to that food,” the official said.

Food adulteration in Char Dham Yatra

As in the whole country, specially in north India, in Haridwar region too adulteration in food items is posing a serious threat to public health. The menace of food adulteration assumes alarming proportions during Char Dham Yatra season, when lacs of pilgrims and tourists congregate at Haridwar and Rishikesh and other destinations on the yatra route. On the petition of five persons, including three from Haridwar, Bhooma Peethadheeshwar Achutyanand Teerthji Maharaj, the president of Haridwar senior citizens welfare society, Shiv Kumar Gupta and a senior citizen, Upendra Dutt Sharma, requesting the Supreme Court to issue directions to the central government and the governments of Delhi, Rajasthan, U.P., Haryana and Uttarakhand to initiate stringent measures to curb the menace of adulteration in milk and manufacturing of synthetic milk, the Apex Court, expressing grave concern about the issue, issued notices to the central government and the governments of the five states to file reply within four weeks.
Adulteration in food items has become a flourishing trade in the country. The unscruplous traders and businessman are fleecing the consumers and playing havoc with their health, while the administration looks the other way. There is hardly any item which is available in the market in pure and unadulterated form. Almost everything you purchase from the market is adulterated. Pulses are adulterated, seeds of papaya are mixed in black pepper, the droppings of horses are mixed in coriander powder and powder of bricks in turmeric powder. Bananas are made to ripen by dropping them in drums of chemicals. Fruits are dipped in artificial colours to give them attractive appearance. Injections are administered to vegetables and fruits to swell their size and make them ripen fast. “Fruits and vegetables are not only losing their nutritional value but also their original flavour,” says Rajkumar of Jwalapur.
Milk and milk products top the list of unsafe food items. Says Suman Aggarwal of Devpura Chowk, Haridwar, “It is impossible to get pure milk these days. It is no exaggeration to say that what we are drinking is white poison”. The main reason behind adulteration in milk and milk products, like paneer, curd, sweets, ghee and mawa, is the yawning gap between the demand and supply. The production of milk goes down in summer season due to less quantity of lactation by the cows and the buffalos in summer days. On the contrary, the demand goes up drastically at this time due to heavy influx of pilgrims and tourists. There may be shortage of drinking water, but there is no shortage of milk. Where does the extra milk come from ? The proprietors of dairies, the milk vendors and the shop keepers try to meet the spiralling demand by adulterating milk with water, taken mostly from canals and ponds, which is harmful for health. Harmful chemicals are mixed to enhance the density of milk. What is still more alarming is that synthetic milk is being prepared on a large scale by mixing water with skimmed milk powder, vegetable oils, detergents, paints, urea and caustic soda. Rackets of synthetic milk have been busted in the past, but no severe punishment has yet been meted out to any of the accused. Roorkee area, from where synthetic milk is supplied not only to the district but also to the hills in the state, has become notorious for this malpractice. Dr. Rajesh Gupta, the president of the city unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), says that the contents which are used in adulterated and synthetic milk are extremely harmful for liver, kidney and other vital organs of the body. A popular nefarious practice is to administer the injection of oxytocin to make cows and buffalos to give more milk. “This is not only a cruelty to animals, but the milk procured in this way is also injurious to health”, says the state unit president of the World Wide Fund of Nature (WWF), Rajendra Agarwal. Manohar Lal Sharma, a senior advocate of Roorkee alleges that the flourishing trade of synthetic milk and milk adulteration goes on openly with the connivance of the officials of the food department.
R.S. Rawat, the Designated Officer (DO) in the district under the Food Safety and Standards Act, says that public co-operation is essential to enforce the laws. The Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act of India 2006 came into force in all the states from August 2011. The act has made strong provisions, including life imprisonment, to check the sale of unsafe food. The sources in the food department say that since January this year 48 samples of milk and other food items have been taken and sent to Rudrapur Laboratory for test. Out of these samples 17 have failed. Now cases are being registered in the court of the chief judicial magistrate and the A.D.M. (finance), depending on the category of the offence”, say the sources in the food department. The district magistrate, Sachin Kurwe, who has recently assumed charge, says that enforcing effective check putting on adulteration in food items, specially milk, is his top priority. A prominent saint, Swami Achutyanand Teerthji Maharaj says that besides the alertness of the law enforcing agencies, the public should also be made aware of their rights so that administration is pressurized to tighten noose on the perpetrators of the most heinous crime of food adulteration.