KOLKATA:
How good is the milk you give your child, mix with your muesli or
simply make tea with? Most of the milk samples tested by Bengal Engineering and Science University
(Besu) on the request of Times of India were found to contain
'adulterants' such as cane sugar, cellulose and sodium chloride (salt).
Tests were conducted for specific gravity and presence of adulterants - like formalin, cane sugar, starch, cellulose, urea, ammonium sulphate, sodium chloride, saccharin, dulcin (a chemical 250 times sweeter than sucrose), foreign fat, carbonates or bicarbonates, neutralizers and hydrogen peroxide. The test was done over a seven-day period in the Besu laboratories after which the report was given to TOI.
The milk samples picked from Kolkata's markets at random were found to have cane sugar, cellulose and sodium chloride. While the state government-run milk brands - Haringhata and Mother Dairy - had adulterants, a milk sample from Amul, one of the largest dairies in the country, contained cellulose, say the report. The Besu test found Metro dairy samples free from any adulterant.
The Besu findings come in the wake of a report on milk tabled in Parliament, which says that an analysis by the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India found neutralizers, detergent and pathogens like e-Coli. The report found adulterants in all four brands that TOI and Besu tested.
Industry insiders say that the adulteration usually happens before raw milk reaches a dairy. Milk suppliers use cheap adulterants like rice starch, raw sugar and salt for adulteration, they say. While starch increases cellulose content, cane sugar increases the solid non-fat (SNF) content.
The milk you buy off shelves has two main ingredients - skimmed milk powder (SMP) and SNF. "Most of the adulteration is done to increase the SNF content of the milk," said an expert. When dairies buy raw milk from suppliers, they pay around Rs 150 for a kg of SNF. The proportion of SNF determines the price a milk supplier gets. "Therefore, there is a tendency among suppliers to add adulterants like sugar, salt and starch to increase the SNF content," said Sumit Deb, managing director of Metro Dairy. "This is a common practice among suppliers, but laboratories can detect the presence of such adulterants," said Narayan Majumdar, a dairy technologist and director of Red Cow Dairy.
Two of the dairies in the state use a milk analyzer called Milkoscan - one of the advanced machines available for such tests. Other dairies use a traditional method called gravimetric test. "Both these processes can detect the presence of adulterants," said Deb, adding that while Milkoscan gives results in a minute, the second method takes 30-40 minutes. So it is left to the laboratory assistants to determine whether the milk sold by a supplier is adulterated.
"We try to maintain every possible check against adulteration. From laboratory tests to processing, chilling and packaging we maintain automated processes to ensure zero adulteration," said Dibakar Mukhopadhyay, milk commissioner of the state.
Despite claims by the state government, samples from the Haringhata dairy were found to contain 4.6% cane sugar and 1.82% sodium chloride. Samples from Mother Dairy contained cellulose. When asked about this, Mother Dairy chief general manager Udaybhanu Gangopadhyay questioned the test procedure. Mother Dairy refused to comment, but a top official of the West Bengal Cooperative Milk Producer's Federation said that they are "looking into it".
RS Sodhi, managing director of Amul, said: "There should not be any aberration in any packet of milk we sell across the country. We will surely look into what caused such a result." A top official of Amul found that the specific gravity of the sample was quite low. "The method used for cellulose detection is subjective. It would have been perfect if thin-layer chromatography were used for the detection," he said.
According to the Milk Federation report for the month of 'Bhadra' (August 18-September 17), of the 5.4 lakh kg milk rejected by four major dairies in the state, 4.8 lakh kg was rejected by a private-run dairy. "It gets milk from the same sources that supply to other dairies. It shows that big dairies are accepting milk, which is not up-to-the mark," said an industry insider.
According to Sodhi, some dairies in Bengal buy SMP from north Indian companies. "Many of these companies are not careful about the quality of SMP. Adulteration in milk can also be attributed to SMP manufacturers," he said.
Tests were conducted for specific gravity and presence of adulterants - like formalin, cane sugar, starch, cellulose, urea, ammonium sulphate, sodium chloride, saccharin, dulcin (a chemical 250 times sweeter than sucrose), foreign fat, carbonates or bicarbonates, neutralizers and hydrogen peroxide. The test was done over a seven-day period in the Besu laboratories after which the report was given to TOI.
The milk samples picked from Kolkata's markets at random were found to have cane sugar, cellulose and sodium chloride. While the state government-run milk brands - Haringhata and Mother Dairy - had adulterants, a milk sample from Amul, one of the largest dairies in the country, contained cellulose, say the report. The Besu test found Metro dairy samples free from any adulterant.
The Besu findings come in the wake of a report on milk tabled in Parliament, which says that an analysis by the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India found neutralizers, detergent and pathogens like e-Coli. The report found adulterants in all four brands that TOI and Besu tested.
Industry insiders say that the adulteration usually happens before raw milk reaches a dairy. Milk suppliers use cheap adulterants like rice starch, raw sugar and salt for adulteration, they say. While starch increases cellulose content, cane sugar increases the solid non-fat (SNF) content.
The milk you buy off shelves has two main ingredients - skimmed milk powder (SMP) and SNF. "Most of the adulteration is done to increase the SNF content of the milk," said an expert. When dairies buy raw milk from suppliers, they pay around Rs 150 for a kg of SNF. The proportion of SNF determines the price a milk supplier gets. "Therefore, there is a tendency among suppliers to add adulterants like sugar, salt and starch to increase the SNF content," said Sumit Deb, managing director of Metro Dairy. "This is a common practice among suppliers, but laboratories can detect the presence of such adulterants," said Narayan Majumdar, a dairy technologist and director of Red Cow Dairy.
Two of the dairies in the state use a milk analyzer called Milkoscan - one of the advanced machines available for such tests. Other dairies use a traditional method called gravimetric test. "Both these processes can detect the presence of adulterants," said Deb, adding that while Milkoscan gives results in a minute, the second method takes 30-40 minutes. So it is left to the laboratory assistants to determine whether the milk sold by a supplier is adulterated.
"We try to maintain every possible check against adulteration. From laboratory tests to processing, chilling and packaging we maintain automated processes to ensure zero adulteration," said Dibakar Mukhopadhyay, milk commissioner of the state.
Despite claims by the state government, samples from the Haringhata dairy were found to contain 4.6% cane sugar and 1.82% sodium chloride. Samples from Mother Dairy contained cellulose. When asked about this, Mother Dairy chief general manager Udaybhanu Gangopadhyay questioned the test procedure. Mother Dairy refused to comment, but a top official of the West Bengal Cooperative Milk Producer's Federation said that they are "looking into it".
RS Sodhi, managing director of Amul, said: "There should not be any aberration in any packet of milk we sell across the country. We will surely look into what caused such a result." A top official of Amul found that the specific gravity of the sample was quite low. "The method used for cellulose detection is subjective. It would have been perfect if thin-layer chromatography were used for the detection," he said.
According to the Milk Federation report for the month of 'Bhadra' (August 18-September 17), of the 5.4 lakh kg milk rejected by four major dairies in the state, 4.8 lakh kg was rejected by a private-run dairy. "It gets milk from the same sources that supply to other dairies. It shows that big dairies are accepting milk, which is not up-to-the mark," said an industry insider.
According to Sodhi, some dairies in Bengal buy SMP from north Indian companies. "Many of these companies are not careful about the quality of SMP. Adulteration in milk can also be attributed to SMP manufacturers," he said.
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