Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal asks food regulator to review 60-year-old rule stipulating higher fat content for Punjab milk, Union Agriculture Minister backs him.
Parkash Singh Badal, cow milk, Punjab cow milk, cow milk fat content, cow milk standards, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, FSSAI, punjab news, india news, nation newsLong before Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal publicly attacked the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for creating an environment of “fear” in the industry and called for streamlining of regulations, another Badal had taken up with the food regulator the need to review a 60-year-old regulation.
For more than two years now, Harsimrat Kaur’s father-in-law and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has been trying to convince the regulator that cow milk standards need an urgent review.
The regulator’s Prevention of Food Adulteration Act of 1957 specifies that cow milk in Punjab must have a higher fat content of 4 per cent compared with 3.5 per cent in rest of India.
The Badal government’s argument is simple: in the last many decades, cross-bred cows have replaced the desi ones, and the former do not yield high fat milk.
After first demanding a review in January 2013 — many letters have since been exchanged among the state and Centre’s agriculture and health ministries — Badal raised the issue again recently in a meeting on skill development with Central ministries in Delhi.
In February this year, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh subsequently wrote to his health counterpart J P Nadda, requesting him to direct the FSSAI to review cow milk standards and bring uniformity in fat content across the country.
In his letter, Radha Mohan Singh said, “The fact is that these standards were fixed long back when desi breeds of cattle with low milk yield and high fat content dominated. The cross breed cattle have higher milk yield and lower fat content. It is, therefore, necessary that this disparity is rectified and a uniform standard across the country is maintained.”
He informed Nadda that the issue has been taken up with FSSAI through his ministry’s Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, through letters dated January 14, 2013, October 15, 2013, July 28, 2014 and October 27, 2014.
It is not just Punjab where cows have to deliver milk with 4 per cent fat. Even Chandigarh and Haryana cows have to meet this norm to meet FSSAI standards.
In Odisha and Mizoram, the food regulator has specified fat content of 3 per cent, lower than 3.5 per cent for the rest of India.
According to the Union Agriculture Ministry, the cross-bred cattle population in Punjab is about 6.83 lakh compared with 1.66 lakh indigenous cattle in 2007, which works out to 80 per cent of the population.
In fact, Punjab even undertook a study titled “Structural shifting the milk composition of cattle with increase in cross breed species in Punjab — Time to revise milk standards” in three districts of Bathinda, Gurdaspur and Ludhiana.The study revealed that average fat content of Holstein Friesian cross-bred cattle milk is 3.7 per cent. The results have been shared with the Central government.
The FSSAI has said it has to follow a set of eight steps before it can change the Food Safety and Standards Regulations 2011.
FSSAI not prescribed any science based Regulations after doing survey but only copied from erstwhile PFA Act. Hence to claim they have to follow 8 steps before revising standards for Punjab, Haryan & U T has no scientific basis. Similarly Ghee standards are need to be revised as there is no cotton tract areas notified by respective states.as mentioned in FSSAI Regulations for Ghee.
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