NEW DELHI: This is bound to set alarm bells ringing. Milk supplied in Delhi and NCR is laced with harmful chemicals. Most of the samples collected and analysed from Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon and Faridabad have tested positive for harmful substances such as neutralisers and skimmed milk powder (SMP) while some others had detergent, urea and ammonium sulphate.
Some of these adulterants are said to cause severe health problems such as cancer, renal failure, stunted growth in children, impact on reproduction, gastrointestinal irritation with nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.
The study conducted by Zoology Department of Maitreyi College, published in Current Science, found that packaged and unpackaged milk was equally contaminated. Surprisingly, urea was present only in packaged samples.
Seventy-five milk samples (packaged and unpackaged) were randomly collected from different regions of Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon and Faridabad, and were qualitatively tested for adulterants, such as neutralisers, SMP, urea, detergents and ammonium sulphate.
The study found that neutralisers were the main adulterant and almost all samples were adulterated with these. They are added to prevent curdling, thus increasing the shelf life. These could be added in the form of caustic soda, sodium bicarbonate and sodium carbonate.
Highest percentage of neutralisers was found in samples collected from east Delhi and they were slightly more in case of packaged samples compared to unpackaged ones.
What should worry the authorities is that excessive amount of neutralisers like carbonates and bicarbonates disrupt hormonal signals and affect growth of children.
Detergent was another hazardous adulterant found in Gurgaon samples.Faridabad had the maximum percentage (40 per cent) of contamination by detergents. More unpackaged samples contained this adulterant. The concentration of urea in natural milk ranges from 0.2 to 0.7 g/l.
Adulterated milk contains 20 times its natural concentration. In the present study, only 10 per cent of samples from Gurgaon had urea and it was absent in Delhi, Faridabad and Noida samples. Ammonium sulphate is also a fertiliser used by vendors to increase the lactometer reading of milk diluted with water. It was present in Delhi samples.
Thirty per cent of samples from Gurgaon and 10 per cent of samples from North Delhi and Faridabad were adulterated with ammonium sulphate. The SMP was also the highest (30 per cent) in samples from Gurgaon.
According to the National Dairy Development Board, demand for milk in India would be 200 MT by 2021-22.