Officials raid Doodh Mandi, seize 300 cans of milk

KANPUR: With the festival season round the corner, the business of adulterated milk and its products is thriving in the city.
On Wednesday, the officials of Food and Drug Authority (FDA) conducted a raid at Doodh Mandi (milk market) in Sutarkhana and seized around two quintals (300 cans) of milk. The officials also seized 25 manipulated electric and manual balances from khoya mandi.
The adulterated milk was later disposed of.
Acting on a tip-off, the team including food inspectors from Food and Drug Authority (FDA), officials of district administration and police, arrived at the spot at around 10 am and inspected milk cans being carried by milkmen from villages of Kanpur and Farukhabad.
On a regular basis, 500 to 1,000 milk vendors come to the city to sell milk and they generally prefer rail route.
In order to curb the rampant adulteration of milk, the squad began their drive with Sutarkhana, behind Kanpur Central railway station, the nucleus of the milk industry in the city.
The food inspectors conducted a few on-the-spot tests to check the density and chemical constituents added to the milk. As they were collect samples from a few milk cans, other milk vendors got the information of the raid and escaped leaving behind around 300 cans (each of 20 litres).
The team seized the abandoned cans and tested the milk there and then with the help of lactometers and other devices.
City magistrate H P Shahi revealed that nearly two quintals of milk left near the railway station was found adulterated with chemicals.
Four people suspected of selling adulterated milk have been taken into custody.
"The seized samples showed presence of sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate, formalin, detergents and other chemicals that are added to increase the density of the milk," Shahi said.
Mixing of these salts and chemical compounds in eatables and milk is prohibited under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954.
Generally, sodium salts are added to neutralise the milk content, sugar is added to increase the solid content instead of fat content in order to increase the lactometer reading of the milk.
The density of pure milk is around 24-25 units. But the density of the collected samples was around 16-18 units, indicating that the milk was contaminated with chemicals, he added.
It was also learnt the a poor quality of glucose was added to increase the density of the milk. Notably, one of the easiest methods for adulterating milk is mixing it with water.
Even cream is removed from the milk and chemicals like formalin are added for its preservation.
The team also inspected the khoya mandi and traced the shops where manipulated electronic and manual balances were being used.
The balances were not having the stamp from Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).