VIJAYAWADA: In the wake of the recent incident where five people died after consuming adulterated milk in Rajamahendravaram, the State Medical and Health Department has launched a statewide inspection drive at milk retail outlets across the State.
Acting on the directions of Health Minister Y Sathya Kumar Yadav, Food Safety officials began surprise checks across the state on Wednesday to curb the sale of substandard and adulterated milk.
As part of the special drive, officials collected nearly 150 milk samples from various retail centres from the milk parlours and unauthorised milk booths at several places and dispatched them for analysis to laboratories in Hyderabad, Chennai and Kakinada.
The inspections have revealed several violations in the sale and supply of milk at various milk and dairy parlours, said the officials.
In Anantapur, authorities identified quality deficiencies in nearly 100 litres of milk at two separate locations and ordered the stock to be discarded. At one outlet, 30 litres of milk stored in a refrigerator were found to be spoiled and about 70 litres were declared substandard after on-the-spot testing using special quality detection kits at another outlet.
In Machilipatnam, officials detected quality issues in 20 litres of badam milk. Meanwhile, in Kakinada, five kilograms of inferior milk powder were seized during inspections.
Director of the Institute of Preventive Medicine, Neelakantha Reddy said stringent action would be taken against those found violating food safety norms or engaging in malpractice in milk sales.
In an official release on Wednesday, the health department officials informed that food safety department officials are using ‘Magic Kits,’ each costing around `8,000, to instantly assess milk quality. These kits have been distributed to all unit officers in 28 districts in the State.
The ongoing inspections are primarily targeting outlets selling loose milk and milk transported in cans to ensure public health and safety and the inspection drive would continue for another week, release said.