Milk is an essential commodity consumed by people on a daily basis. However, people in the city usually are unaware of the freshness and the milk's quality as they consume it via sealed packets supplied by various brands. In a raid last month, Food & Drug Administration (FDA) caught a woman in Santacruz while adulterating milk. After which, FDA confiscated more than 1,075 litres of adulterated milk along with 6,900 empty milk packets ranging from various popular brands.
Recently, an investigation by FDA revealed that the milk dairies throughout Maharashtra are also involved in the milk adulteration.
On Wednesday, around 5:00 am, 35 food safety officers and 12 assistant commissioner carried out a raid and inspected 227 tankers and 9.22 lakh litre milk was seized. Of 9.22 lakh litre milk, 13 milk samples were collected out of which five samples proved harmless and this very milk, which had come from Pune and Nashik, was sent back for reprocessing. The milk was worth ₹1. 93 lakh.
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Accordingly, state FDA commissioner Pallavi Darade has decided to take action against the dairies responsible for adulteration of milk in the state. She added that one of the dairies in Satara has been found guilty of the adulteration and accordingly, they will be booked for the misconduct.
More importantly, FDA found out that the dairies were contaminating the milk in the tankers before they were sent to be dispatched. Therefore, they allotted the FDA officials at the five of Mumbai’s toll plazas where 227 tankers were found with 19,000 litres of adulterated milk which was accordingly destroyed by FDA. The investigation further revealed about the misdeed being conducted at the dairies itself.
Accordingly, the authorities have taken action against Satara’s ‘Heritage Food Ltd.’ which has been found being involved in the milk adulteration offense. FDA raided the company and discovered that they had been using a substance called ‘maltodextrin’ in the milk.
Darade stated that around 898 liters of milk and 12,924 kg of milk powder were seized and destroyed. The milk worth ₹42,206 and milk powder worth ₹17,44,740 was destroyed. She added that due to adulteration of milk in the various dairies, the state authorities will now keep a close watch on dairy products.
FDA is set to take stern action against the accused dairies and will possibly shut down the dairies that have been conducting adulteration in the state. Meanwhile, Darade has indicated that the consumers should pay attention to the dairy products they buy and if they find anything suspicious, then they should contact the FDA officials.
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