Milk quality control drive runs out of steam

Private dairies remain outside the ambit of dairy development department

Stripped of statutory powers for sampling and reprisal against quality compromises, the week-long intensive quality control drive being undertaken by the district dairy development department during Onam, when demand for milk and milk products surges, seems to have run out of steam.

Despite their depleted authority, dairy development officials in the district continue to collect on an average 30 milk samples from the market daily, test them at the department’s quality control lab at Kakkanad and sent the collated sample reports to the State Directorate of Dairy Development. These reports are in turn forwarded to the Commissionerate of Food Safety constituted under the Food Safety and Standards Act.

“Only food safety department is empowered to take action on those reports, which previously was the domain of dairy development department under the now defunct Milk and Milk Product Order and the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. Now we can’t even collect milk samples statutory, which helped us to hold those compromising on quality and adulteration accountable for their act,” dairy department sources said.

Previously, multiple samples were collected with one sample kept sealed at the source and the second one sent for quality control tests. This way, if there were deviations from set standards, the violators could be taken to task as there was a sample of the same batch to prove it. With that authority taken away and given to food safety officials since 2011, dairy department officials now simply take samples from the market with no back up of sealed sample at source leaving room for those at fault to challenge the lab results easily.

Administration

The dairy department is now solely entrusted with the administration of primary milk cooperative societies registered under it and ensuring the quality of their milk which is collected and distributed by Milma. “Private dairies remain outside the ambit of the department as they cannot be visited by department officials,” the sources said.

Officials bemoan that despite having trained staff qualified in dairy technology unlike food safety officials and full fledged quality control labs, the department has been left with little authority to act. Repeated pleas to restore the past authority of the department had fallen on deaf ears.

The intensive quality control drive in the district will last till September 13. The department has also opened an information centre in association with the District Panchayat at Kakkanad from where the public can get milk samples tested within 20 minutes. Milk samples are mostly tested for fat and sugar and presence of adulterants and preservatives.