India’s Central Food Laboratory has reported the milk produced by Khyber Agro Farms is unsafe for consumption as traces of synthetic detergent have been found in the samples.
Khyber Agro Farms located at Letapora in South Kashmir supplies sixty thousand liters of milk per day all across Kashmir that is being consumed by millions of Kashmiri people.
Highly placed sources said the Srinagar Municipal Corporation has received a report from Central Food Laboratory (CFL), Kolkata, which has declared Khyber milk unsafe and hazardous for human consumption.
Taking serious note of the report, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation according to sources has directed Health Officer of the corporation to apprise the district administration officials about the issue so that legal action against the company could be initiated.
Sources said a high-level meeting would be held in Srinagar on Thursday which would be chaired by Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Shalinder Kumar. Sources said that the issue would be discussed threadbare in the meeting.
Health Officer, Dr Shafqat Ahmed Khan, said a negative report about Khyber Agro Farms has been received by the corporation and in this regard a high level meeting was going to be held in Srinagar on Wednesday but due to some reasons it was postponed and now would be called on Thursday.
“Yes, the samples of Khyber milk have been contaminated. We have received the report. There is nothing to hide and we are going to inform the general public within days,” Khan said, adding that they would follow legal process and would apprise all the authorities about the negative report of the company.
The Health Officer said that it is a public issue and the authorities have taken a serious note of it. “The report is lying with me and we are going to initiate action against the company under law and soon after the meeting a notice would be sent to the said company,” he told CNS.
Pertinently, the High Court bench of Justice Hasnain Massodi and D S Thakur, while showing concern over poor implementation of Food Safety and Standards Act in the state, had held that presence of detergent in milk samples collected on its direction from the market is indicative of milk having been manufactured with constituents highly harmful for human consumption.
“Synthetic milk,” the bench had observed, “as per available scientific research is prepared by mixing urea, caustic soda, refined oil and common detergents. The detergents are used to dissolve oil in water giving frothy solution characters of white colour of milk. Refined oil is used as substitute for milk fat. Caustic soda is used to blend milk and to neutralise acidity preventing it from turning sour during its transport from the place it is manufactured to the consumers.” The bench had observed: “The synthetic milk may cause cancer as it has carcinogenic properties. It may cause cancer and other serious ailments of vital organs of a human being.”
According to a study conducted by the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) experts fear the consumption of contaminated milk by the gullible people across the state could lead to gastroenteritis, food poisoning, endocrinology and several other chronic diseases.
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