Milk supplied in pockets of Bengaluru may be unsafe

 

 BENGALURU: There is no guarantee that milk available in several parts of Bengaluru city and the entire Mysuru district is fit for consumption. For, jurisdictional food safety officials have failed to collect a single sample for testing from east and south zones of Bengaluru city, Bengaluru Urban district and Mysuru district (barring Mysuru city) between April 2016 and September 2018, documents accessed by TOI reveal.

Officials from the food safety commissionerate test samples of all kinds of milk, including loose, toned and packaged, as is done with all food items.

TimesView

Non-collection of milk samples from Bengaluru and Mysuru areas is a huge cause of concern, especially when inspections in other regions have thrown up unpalatable revelations. The presence of dead insects in this essential commodity not only makes one cringe in disgust but indicates the gravity of the situation. The government needs to ramp up staff strength in the food safety commissionerate so that regular checks can be conducted. Though fines have been slapped in some cases, stricter punishment is needed to make errant milk producers/suppliers fall in line. The authorities should deal with the issue on priority to ensure everyone — from schoolchildren to senior citizens — can have a glassful of nutrition without worries.

The neglect, however, seems surprising given that milk of suspected quality and with adulterated content is believed to be extensively used by roadside tea shops. The uncovered areas in Bengaluru include Koramangala, Girinagar, JP Nagar, Chamarajpet, Jayanagar, Bommanahalli, Shivajinagar, Fraser Town and Shantinagar. 

“We are too shortstaffed to conduct regular raids and inspections. We are not able to concentrate on adulteration-related issues as well as routine work,” admitted an official part of regular inspection exercises.

Milk samples were collected from 457 places across the state between April 2016 to September 2018, and 12 of them were found to be unsafe for consumption. Cases were filed in respective magistrate courts. “Another 59 cases related to misbranding or substandard quality of milk were filed and in 40 of them, a fine of Rs 42,500 was slapped. The remaining cases are pending,” said the official.

“During the inspections, we found dead insects in loose milk, apart from detergents and low fat content in some cases. Private milk producers were found mixing sugar and sodium chloride salt, which is alarming,” said another official.

The maximum milk samples were collected from Bidar district, where 19 of the 52 samples were reported as substandard and a penalty of Rs 10,000 was collected. In Belagavi district, five of 47 samples were found to be of low quality. From Vijayapura district, 31 samples were collected and 6 were found substandard.

Food safety regulation has been poor in Bengaluru Rural, Chamarajanagar, Davanagere, Dharwad and Mandya districts, with each of them reporting collection of only four samples. Only one sample was collected each from Dakshina Kannada and Hassan. Fourteen samples were collected from BBMP north zone and 13 from west, 29 from Mysuru city 29 and 43 from Ramanagara.