Milk raid: Is food killing us softly?

In a major raid on early Thursday morning the Maharashtra government Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cracked down a milk adulteration racket involving leading milk dairies. The FDA found that huge quantities of milk packets were being off-loaded on the Western Express Highway by milk distribution vendors for adulteration.

The question that was brought up on the show India 360 was: Are we doing enough to check food adulteration?

On the panel to share there views were experts comprising professor, Dairy Science, Dr Rajendra Kokane, general manager, Warna Cooperative, Dr Mohan Yedurkar, and leading consumer activist and executive director, Consumer Voice, Bejon Misra.

So how can we find out that packet milk is adulterated?

Kokane said that it is the duty of a housewife to check whether the pouch is genuine or tampered. “None of the branded companies will take risk in adulterating or tampering their pouch to lose their repute. So to find that out whether the pouch is genuine or not, just give a gentle pressure on the pouch. If it is soft like a pillow and no be very loose then it indicates that it is a genuine pouch. A genuine pouch has three joints: A vertical joint-if the vertical joint is missing in the pouch then it can be straightly considered tampered. The other two joints or the horizontal joints should be even. If there is any unevenness in the corners of the pouch then you will know that the pouch is tampered. Technology has only aided in the advancement of adulteration of milk,” he said.

He further added that earlier the milk was cut in one corner and re-sealed again. It was very easy to detect an uneven joint. Now the simple technique of adulteration includes inserting a syringe and taking out an amount of 15 to 20 ml of milk by leaving the needle on and the pouch being refilled with the same amount of whatever quality of water. The pouch is re-sealed.

The raids that happened in Mumbai disclosed a milk-adulteration racket that happens there. The Milk Cooperatives and suppliers said that once the milk leaves the place of produce then they are not responsible. It is the distributors who are to blame. So aren’t the Cooperatives absolving themselves of the responsibility?

General manager of Warna Cooperative, Yedurkar said, “We are responsible to a certain extent. However, we in Warna keep a constant check on our distributors, retailers and authorised dealers. We have a constant feedback from the consumers. The FDA has made it compulsory to print the help line number on the pouch. If the consumers detect any form of adulteration then we can be contacted. If a complaint is lodged then we immediately approach the consumer, take the sample of the milk, test it in our laboratory and if the milk is found to be adulterated then we request the consumer to tell the source from where they get their milk. And we then start our promotional campaign.”

Is there an effective mechanism to track down the distributors who are indulging in adulteration?

“We do not have such a mechanism,” said Yedurkar.

Mishra added, “In today’s context the effective mechanism in terms of food safety and the quality that has been assured to the consumer is an absolute zero. We have been constantly telling the law enforcers to try and strengthen the mechanism. Why should the housewife be made to check whether the pouch is adulterated? It is the job of the food inspector and the law enforcers to do that in a regular manner.”

We have laws in place including the food safety standard law that is in the offing, which says that there is going to be a single reference point to check food adulteration. However, do these laws have teeth?

“The way the new law has been framed is much better then the existing law. The new law has been passed by Parliament but has not come into force. We still don’t have a food authority in place during time of urgency. Now at least the people who are offenders and who cause such damage to health will have to pay compensation for those damages. The issue however, is how they rectify that damage and how the damage can be recovered to pay to the consumer. Under the provision of the Consumer Protection Act, we have been able to give certain damages to the complainants but we have not been able to do it in a prompt manner so people are still suffering. They are getting sick due to such adulterations. Till you don’t give a strong message to the offenders, if the industry doesn’t take responsibility and until consumers start demanding quality, there will not be immediate changes,” Mishra said.

There was a theory floating around that many cooperatives are entering the milk industry and they actually have a stranglehold of the milk industry. Are they sabotaging the industry?

“The cooperatives are entering into the milk business because they find it lucrative. They could have other reasons also for that. Many had entered the milk industry earlier but they failed,” said Yedurkar.

So can civic activism work in a case like this?

“The citizens have to wake up and there should be a fair competition where consumers get informed choice which means being able to differentiate between a contaminated milk and healthy milk,” said Mishra.

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