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CoverStory








                    he World Health Organization has
                    given to the Government of India an
                    advisory warning, stating that without
                    adequate tracking of milk adulteration,
                    87 per cent of citizens could be at risk
                    of developing serious diseases, such
         T as cancer, by the year 2025. The re-
         sults of investigation expose the dark side of the dairy
         industry, the adulteration, and the cruelty meted out
         to the dairy cattle and the unsanitary conditions of
         milk production.
           The “White Revolution” in India was brought by the
         launch of “Operation Flood” in 1975, under which the
         milk production in the country increased from 22
         million tonnes in 1970 to current level of 176.3 million
         tonnes. Currently, India is the largest producer of milk
         in the world, accounting for 18.5 per cent of world pro-
         duction. But with this has come the greed to adulter-
         ate milk caring a fig for its consequences.
           Delhi Medical Association (DMA) was approached
         for comments. Dr. Anil Bansal, former President of
         DMA said, “milk is a complete food having necessary
         minerals and vitamins but adulterated milk having
         urea, detergent, hydro peroxide can lead to deadly
         diseases including cancer”. Dr. Bansal observed that
         consumers should avoid use milk procured from un-
         authorized sources.
         FSSAI: 41 PER CENT SAMPLES LACKING
         A Food Safety and Standards Authority of India
         (FSSAI) Survey report released recently covering all
         Indian States and UTs has shown that about 41 per
         cent samples, fall short of one or another quality
         parameter or standard.
           A total of 6,432 samples of milk were collected from
         1,103 towns and cities with population above 50,000.
         Samples were collected both from the organized
         (retailers and processors) as well as non-organized
         (local dairy farms, milk vendors and milk mandis)
         sectors.
           Number of samples collected was linked to popula-
         tion at the sampling locations and covered raw milk
         as well as various types of processed milk. This is first-
         of its kind extensive self-designed, representative and
         most comprehensive survey of safety and quality of    USE OF AFLATOXIN M1
         liquid milk so far. Earlier, FSSAI had carried out milk   A major finding in the survey was presence of afla-
         surveys in 2011 and 2016 with sample size of 1791 and   toxin M1 residues beyond permissible limits. This is
         1663 respectively.                                    the first time that presence of aflatoxin M1 in milk has
           Even though these surveys were informative, but     been assessed. Aflatoxin M1 comes in the milk through
         these were inadequate as no clear picture emerged     feed and fodder, which are currently not regulated in
         from these surveys due to small sample size and test-  the country. Amongst the top three States with high-
         ing done by different laboratories that did not follow   est levels of aflatoxin M1 residues are Tamil Nadu (88
         uniform protocol. Moreover, only qualitatively analy-  out of 551 samples), Delhi (38 out of 262 samples) and
         sis was done and required safety parameters were not   Kerala (37 out of 187 samples).
         covered in the survey.                                  This problem is more dominant in processed milk


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