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Editor’s Note

Shedding light on the dark

side of White Revolution!

“THE UNSAFE MILK Unveiling the truth of milk that milk is over 300 grams per day against world average
we drink” is the Tehelka Cover Story in this issue. When of 294 grams. Unfortunately, however, the human
sometime back, the World Health Organization (WHO) greed has led to adulteration in milk endangering
issued an advisory to India saying “If adulteration isn’t health.
put to a stop, a large chunk of India’s population would The good news is that at long last, the FSSAI seems
be suffering from serious and fatal diseases like can- to wake up to the stark reality and has recommended
cer by the end of 2025”, it was expected that measures stringent punishment to curb food adulteration, in-
would be taken to check adulteration. But nothing cluding life imprisonment and penalty of up to 10 lakh.
seems to have changed. The food regulator has proposed amendments to the
The milk that we drink is adulterated with deter- Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act.
gents, caustic soda, hydrogen peroxide that is used in FSSAI CEO Pawan Agarwal said more than adultera-
bleach, urea that is commonly used in fertilizer, afla- tion, contamination was a serious problem as substanc-
toxin and paint. The nationwide survey conducted es such as Aflatoxin-M1, antibiotics and pesticides were
by India’s food regulator Food Safety and Standards found more in the processed milk samples. The FSSAI
Authority of India (FSSAI) covering all Indian States and has proposed, “Any person adding an adulterant to food
UTs has shown that about 41 per cent samples, fall short so as to render it injurious for human consumption, ir-
of one or another quality parameter. respective of the fact whether it causes actual injury or
The data released by the Federation of Indian Ani- not, shall be punishable for a term which shall not be
mal Protection Organization (FIAPO) is equally alarm- less than 7 years but which may extend to imprison-
ing and its investigative report reveals that cows raised ment for life and also fine which shall not be less than
in dairies across India are treated like milk-producing 10 lakh”.
machines, pumped with antibiotics and hormones At present, the imprisonment is up to three months
to produce more milk. The result is that humans who and fine is up to one lakh. However, the citizens too
drink milk are more susceptible to developing heart have to wake up and detect adulteration with some
disease, diabetes, cancer, and many other ailments. rapid but cheap indigenously manufactured food test-
The “Operation Flood” launched in 1975 brought ing devices for milk and edible oils that have recently
a ‘White Revolution’ catapulting India as the largest been introduced by the FSSAI. Its time to reshape the
producer of milk raising the milk production from 22 way we think about health!
million tonnes to current level of 176.3 million tonnes.
It sounds good that in India, per capita availability of CHARANJIT AHUJA

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VOLUME 17, ISSUE NO. 4, RELEASED ON 24 JANUARY 2020, NUMBER OF PAGES INCLUDING COVER 68
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