Adulterated milk traders under FDA scanner

Ahead of the festive season,the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has decided to crackdown on traders selling adulterated milk and milk products in Pune. The FDA has already slapped 42 cases against offenders and has suspended the licence of 13 traders.

FDA Joint Commissioner Sanjay Patil on Wednesday issued a directive to food inspectors to take a stern view of adulterated milk and milk products in the market before the festival season begins. “We have been conducting raids ever since chemicals were found in milk samples in Phaltan in August last year,” said Patil. After a series of checks in the Pune district last year,the FDA examined 210 milk samples. At least 42 cases have been filed against the offenders and licences of 13 traders have been suspended,Patil said. The FDA has decided to keep strict vigil following the Phaltan case where chemicals were found mixed with milk samples. Food inspectors have been instructed to conduct immediate raids if they find that traders do not store milk products properly.

Between April and September this year,the FDA collected milk samples from traders,farmers,collection centres,manufacturers and milk dairies in Pune district. As many as 52 milk samples were collected from Pune,70 from Solapur,44 from Satara,56 from Sangli and 47 from Kolhapur,Patil said. The samples were sent to labs in Mumbai and Aurangabad for examination and the reports are awaited,he added. The Union Health Ministry had recently observed that the percentage of tainted milk and milk products sold were highest in Maharashtra followed by Andhra Pradesh,Gujarat and Punjab. According to the latest data available,of the 281 samples of beverages and 1,063 samples of milk collected by the health regulators in Maharashtra,23 per cent of beverages and 15 per cent of the milk samples were adulterated.