Milk just safe, quality still an issue

17% Found Unsafe, FSSAI Plans Action

New Delhi:

The quality of milk sold in the country has come under the regulatory scanner with nearly half or 48.9% of samples tested by the food safety regulator found to be non-compliant with its standards. Though only 10% of samples were found unsafe, quality issues persist with 39% failing on compliance parameters raising concerns about quality of milk consumed in the country.

The regulator is particularly concerned about processed milk, with 46.8% processed milk samples found non-compliant with standards set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Of this, a significant 17.3% share of processed milk is unsafe. On the contrary, only 4.9% of raw milk samples were found having safety issues. The rest 45.4% of raw milk was found to be non-compliant with regulatory standards but safe for public health, according to the findings of the National Milk Safety and Quality Survey, 2018.

“We are surprised and particularly concerned that processed milk which is mostly from the organized sector is non-compliant and have a higher percentage of safety issues as compared to raw milk samples. We have the details of these processed milk samples including their brands and locations. We are doing a detailed investigation and will soon take action to resolve this,” FSSAI chief executive Pawan Agarwal said.

Agarwal maintained milk in India is “largely safe” though there are quality issues, which are being looked at by the regulator. The unsafe contaminants are coming mainly from “poor farm practices,” he said.

Estimates show that currently consumption of raw milk is much more because most of the population resides in rural area though processed milk is catching up fast with rapidly spreading network of organized players.

Findings of the survey show main contaminants causing safety concerns are related to presence of antibiotics, soil fertilizers like ammonium sulphate and toxins like Aflatoxin M1- found on agricultural crops such as maize, cottonseed and tree nuts – above tolerance level. More samples of processed milk were found containing all these unsafe contaminants, as compared with raw milk samples.

FSSAI hired a third party food testing lab, Vimta Labs, for conducting the survey based on a total 6,432 samples collected and tested from across the country over a period of six months between May to October, 2018. The samples included 41% processed milk and 59% raw milk. Of the processed milk, 60% were toned milk, 20% full cream milk, 15% standard milk and 5% double toned milk. Raw milk samples included one-third each of cow, buffalo and mixed milk.

The survey covered only liquid milk and not milk products.

FSSAI is now doing a detailed investigation, mainly on processed milk. “We are working out an action plan against the safety and quality concerns raised in the survey, mainly in processed milk. This will include periodic sampling, monitoring, facility audits by third party and checking of supply chain,” Agarwal said.