NEW DELHI: India’s food safety regulator has said that about 90 per cent of the milk being sold and consumed in India is “largely safe” and only 10 per cent is contaminated, mainly due to poor farm practices.
In an interim report of the National Milk Quality Survey, 2018 , Food Safety and Standards Authority of India said that, in a large number of samples examined , very few samples were found to be adulterated.
This is by far the largest systematic survey of milk, both in terms of sample size — 6,432 samples — and the number of parameters as it considered 4 quality parameters, 12 adulterants; and 4 contaminants — 93 antibiotics residues, 18 pesticides residues, Aflatoxin M1 and Ammonium Sulphate.
The survey findings come amid concerns expressed by a senior Animal Welfare Board of India member Mohan Singh Ahluwalia sometime back that nearly 70 per cent milk in Indian markets are not as per FSSAI standards. He had also quoted an “advisory” by the World Health Organisation to the Indian government while citing the figure in a press conference recently.
FSSAI CEO Pawan Agarwal, however, sought to dismiss the claim, saying that there is no such advisory from the WHO.
“There is a fake report going around that says that a large number of Indians are at great risk of serious diseases due to consumption of heavily contaminated milk. However, there is no such evidence for such an inference,” Agarwal said.
The survey was conducted over a period of 6 months, between May to October, 2018.
What FSSAI found in the milk survey
This is the first survey that analysed contaminants, including residues of pesticides, antibiotics, Aflatoxin and Ammonium sulphate in milk
Less than 10 per cent had contaminants that make milk unsafe for consumption, as per the survey. In all these cases, milk is getting contaminated due to poor quality of feed, irresponsible use of antibiotics and poor farm practices.