A Problem of Purity

The recent raids against milk chilling units in Madhya Pradesh show that food adulteration is a clear and present danger.

WHAT’S IN THERE? Milk being collected at Van Khandeshwari chilling plant, Morena. 

In the last week of July, Special Task Force (STF) sleuths disguised as doodhias (a colloquial term for milkmen) began surveiling the Van Khandeshwari milk chilling plant at Ambah, in Morena, Madhya Pradesh. They had received credible intelligence that the sale of spurious milk in the area had spiked, likely due to the festive season, when demand surges. And when they compared the amount of raw milk being delivered to Van Khandeshwari to the amount leaving it, a huge mismatch had been revealed.

Despite expecting to find adulteration taking place, when cops raided the plant two days later, the scale of the operation they found was stunning. The plant was stocked with hundreds of kilos of chemicals, oils and detergents. Thousands of litres of 'synthetic milk' were being produced and sent on to packaging and distribution units. This packaged 'milk' was then being sold all across the region, including in major cities like the national capital, Gurgaon and Noida.

Allegedly, what the STF found was only the tip of the iceberg. Sources say that both chemical suppliers and local officials are part of the larger racket. Since the state's Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) officials generally spend years posted to the same region, some say that unhealthily cosy relationships have developed between dairy units and the authorities responsible for overseeing them. What is also telling is that those in the Gwalior-Chambal region who can afford to do so generally keep their own cattle for milk-locals are undoubtedly all too aware of the scale of the racket.

A week after the raid on Van Khandeshwari, a state-wide crackdown was launched, with agencies expanding their investigation to include products other than milk. Those arrested in the raids-including those from Khandeshwari and nearby regions, including Morena, Gwalior and Ujjain-have been charged under the National Security Act (NSA). However, these events have led to a number of questions: what are the economics of the racket, and who are the key players? Is the government response adequate, or is it merely a stop-gap arrangement to quell public anger? And, most importantly, why is adulteration thriving in Bhind and Morena?

Bhind and Morena-districts that were once infested with dacoit gangs-have large Gujjar populations that are extensively engaged in cattle-rearing and associated activities, including dairy. Agriculture is not very remunerative, given the undulating, ravine-marked lands of the region. Manufacturing is almost entirely absent. Consequently, milk and dairy products constitute an important part of the rural economy. The Chambal region also has a long-standing reputation for lawlessness and weak governance, leading to rampant corruption.

Adulteration, for instance, is not limited to the dairy industry. The STF is now closing in on a thriving edible oil adulteration racket in the region as well. Since mustard is an important local crop, several oil mills also operate in the area, and there are frequent reports of mustard oil being adulterated with cheap rice bran and palm oil. "Adulterated oil is prepared as per market requirements and depending on the taste that is in demand in a given region," says a worker at one of Morena's oil mills, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Everyone is involved, from inter-state [authorities], the food and drugs department and the police."

HOW IT HAPPENS

The dairy industry begins with cattle farmers and transporters. Transporters collect milk from farmers twice a day, delivering it to local chilling units. Before being accepted, the milk is checked for purity-not regularly, but randomly-using a lactometer. Once accepted, the milk is chilled to about 1 degree Celsius, before being loaded onto tankers and sent to processing units, where it is packaged/ processed into milk powder, etc. Generally speaking, adulteration takes place at chilling units, simply because of the volume of milk passing through these locations. The process by which 'synthetic milk' is made involves the use of refined oil or vanaspati, soap and shampoo, aside from several other chemicals. In tests conducted by lactometers-which measure the fat content of a liquid-this sort of spurious milk passes with flying colours, as a result of the oil mixed into it.

The scale of the problem is enormous. "In Bhind and Morena alone, there are estimated to be more than 200 chilling units," says Amit Singh, superintendent of police, STF, Gwalior. And the seizures made by STF sleuths from such chilling plants have been chilling in their own right. Materials seized from Van Khandeshwari included sacks of sodium citrate, maltodextrin powder and sodium thiosulphate. There were also significant recoveries of detergent and thousands of litres of vanaspati and refined oil. During another search by FDA officials, this one at Maa Kailadevi chilling centre at Ambah, 36,000 litres of synthetic milk, 1,400 tins of refined oil, 550 bags of caustic soda, 17 cans of hydrogenated fats and 550 bags of skimmed milk powder were seized. The milk from these units was bound for Aligarh, Meerut, Kanpur and Agra. In yet another raid, this one at Gopal Ice Factory in Lahar, Bhind district, the STF seized 2,000 litres of synthetic milk, 1,000 kg of mawa and 1,500 kg of synthetic paneer. And the list goes on.

THE COSTS OF ADULTERATION

Right at the beginning of the value chain, cattle farmers earn about Rs 40 per litre of pure milk. After chilling, processing, packaging and the like, milk arrives at households priced at about Rs 48 per litre (and above). Given the vast volumes of milk sold every day, the profits of adulteration can be immense.

"To every 100 litres of raw milk, [milk adulterators] add about two litres of refined oil, 200 gm of detergent, 50 gm of lime and 30 litres of water," says a young man from Morena who claims to have worked at one such chilling unit-an investment of about Rs 200. The combined concoction yields about 150 litres of 'synthetic milk' per 100 litres of pure milk, at a total cost of Rs 4,200. Since 150 litres of pure milk costs about Rs 6,000, that means a profit of Rs 1,800 per 100 litres of pure milk, or Rs 18 per litre-almost 50 per cent per litre.

"A report by the Union ministry for science and technology had stated that a staggering 68.7 per cent of milk sold in the country is adulterated," said Madhya Pradesh minister of health, Tulsi Silawat. "Nationally, in 2017-18, the per capita availability of milk was 375 grams, while consumption was 480 grams per person." These figures also suggest that the excess demand is being met through synthetic milk. And these ill-gotten profits are not just confined to milk. Downstream dairy products such as mawa and paneer also have spurious forms produced using 'synthetic milk'. Just like milk, the demand for these products also rises during festive seasons, leading to bumper profits.

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE: Samples of mawa seized by state police. 

So profitable is the dairy adulteration industry, in fact, that Gwalior is filled with stories of people who went from selling milk on bicycles to setting up chilling plants-and who now travel around in expensive cars. Taking note of these sudden success stories, the income tax department is also reportedly looking into returns filled by chilling units in these regions in the last few years.

Another angle is the damage that adulterated milk and dairy products cause. Additives can have poisonous consequences, aside from stripping milk of beneficial proteins. As Dr C.C. Chaubal, a noted gastroenterologist from Bhopal, says, "Caustic soda is an alkaline compound that can cause ulcers, erosion of the gastric channel and can even lead to liver cancer." The use of shampoos and detergents can also cause damage to the liver and kidney, he adds. And a major problem is that complications from consuming adulterated milk only show effect after prolonged exposure, by which time significant damage has already been done to the body.

THE GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE

After the STF raids conducted in late July, the MP government responded swiftly, with Chief Minister Kamal Nath ordering a crackdown and instructing officials to invoke the NSA in such cases. The state FDA has also been instructed to inspect chilling units and dairies and to take samples for testing. On August 19, the state cabinet reiterated its fight against adulteration, adopting the slogan 'shuddh ke liye yuddh (war on adulteration).'

Since the raids at Bhind and Morena, a total of 57 people have been booked by the state police under Sections 51 and 59 of the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006, as well as under Sections 272, 273, 420 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code. "We are also going after chemical suppliers," says Ashok Awasthi, additional director general of the STF. However, the government is also grappling with critical issues that hamper such investigations.

For one, of the mandated 275 food safety officer (FSO) positions in the state, 122 are vacant. Though the government has said it will recruit 85 more FSOs, this will take time. Secondly, the state has just one food-testing laboratory, in Bhopal, equipped to handle 6,000 tests per year. After the crackdown, 3,200 samples have already been sent to Bhopal for tests, where they are piling up at this solitary facility for lack of manpower. It takes an average of 10 hours for a sample to be tested-as of August 6, only 428 samples had been tested. Of these, 139 were substandard, 22 were misbranded, eight were unsafe, three were found to have had traces of prohibited material and nine were found to be adulterated. Adulterants found in these samples included urea, pesticide, boric acid and detergent. To ease the burden on this lab, the state government has announced that new labs are to be set up at Gwalior, Jabalpur and Indore, as well as beginning recruitment to existing vacant posts.

Another problem has to do with law-related issues. "Under the FSSA, the police do not have the authority to enter food production premises-only food department officials can," says STF SP Singh. "Further, while there are penal provisions in the FSSA, there are also fines, which enable people to get away." On this count, the state government is looking for possible interventions. "The government is working on a provision to introduce life imprisonment for those found guilty of food adulteration," said state health minister Silawat.

A third issue relates to the state's geography. MP shares borders with five states, all of which have varying laws to deal with food adulteration. Having a porous border doesn't help either.

"Awareness is very important in this battle. Besides the health department, the police and municipal authorities can play an important role in securing information about adulterated products, as they have a large public interface," says Pallavi Jain Govil, state principal secretary for health. The government's stated intentions, however, come under a cloud when one notes how rarely food department officials in Bhind and Morena are transferred, even when there is change of government. Most food inspectors are locals, and maintain their posts through connections to the party in power. Sometimes, they get themselves transferred to nearby towns for short periods of time so that their records show that they haven't been posted in one place for extended periods of time. A perusal of food inspector service records in Bhind and Morena makes it clear that the same individuals appear to keep cycling through regional posts.

The owners of chilling units, however, say the issue is being blown out of proportion. "It is said that the owners of such units are making crores in profits. This is not true. There is barely a margin of 20 paise per litre-but since milk costs more than Rs 40 per litre, and daily volumes are in the lakhs of litres, the turnover goes into crores," says Ram Naresh Sharma of Maa Vaishnav chilling centre in Ambah. He also says that the soap that appears in samples sent for testing is often trace amounts left over from washing storage containers.

"I understand that it is not right to add anything to the milk," he argues, "but many chilling unit owners add harmless skimmed milk powder if the milk doesn't meet fat content standards-which happens sometimes in certain seasons, or due to a poor diet of the dairy animal."