How to beat

Milk
Adulteration
milk adulteration
by Ina Jordaan, managing director: Dairy Standard Agency
“When consumers buy milk, they have the right to assume that it
will be pure and unadulterated.
The South African dairy industry
should provide adequate quality control systems”
M&J RETAIL | 19
DAIRY MAIN FEATURE
No substance may be added to milk to
extend
its shelf life or preserve the product.
Unnecessary adulteration can be prevented.
This will improve dairy quality, public health
and peace of mind.
The Dairy Standard Agency (DSA) was appointed
to fulfil this need. As a quality monitoring
body, the
DSA strives to limit adulteration and other forms of
fraud. These practices undermine the development
of the industry and reduce consumer
confidence.
What is milk adulteration?
Adulteration means all non-accidental, preventable
changes to dairy or dairy processes that reduce
quality or create avoidable risks. It also refers to the
counterfeiting of dairy. The old way of thinking was
that there is a distinction between adulteration and
the contamination of food.
However, contamination refers to contaminated
or tainted food/dairy, undesirable residues and
inappropriate particles or micro-organisms finding
their way into food. In the previous century,
the
word “adulteration” covered both these meanings.
Milk adulteration refers to marketing a product
as “milk”, while the product does not comply
with the legal definition of milk. Milk adulteration
includes practices where the following are
added or mixed with milk:
• Water
• Whey
• Whey and water
• Milk powder and water
• Butter (added to skimmed milk)
• Plant fats.
Adulteration and the law
The Agricultural Product Standards Act (Act no
119 of 1990) and regulations relating to dairy
and imitation dairy products (Regulation 2581 of
20 November 1987), prescribe that milk should
not be subjected to any process other than homogenisation
or preservation by pasteurisation,
ultra-high temperature treatment, sterilisation,
chilling or freezing.
Economic greed
Deliberate adulteration is motivated by economic
greed. For obvious
reasons, milk adulteration
negatively affects the consumer
and the industry.
The DSA takes various actions to limit adulteration.
In this regard, the DSA works closely with the
relevant government departments. Adulteration
of milk with whey and/or water is not the only
fraudulent practice that occurs. Other fraudulent
practices include under-filling and selling milk
with a sub-standard cream content.
Milk may be adulterated on purpose, or accidentally,
during production or processing. Either
a more expensive ingredient is substituted with a
cheaper one, or a valued component is (partially)
removed in the hope that the consumer does
not notice the difference. Diluting milk with water
or skimming off the cream are good examples of
this long-standing practice.
Fraudulent malpractices create unfair
competition.
This leads to market distortions,
which in turn may impact the local or even the
international economy. Therefore, authentication
of milk and milk products is important to both
consumers and manufacturers.
Economic adulteration
Usually, supplementation of a product with a cheap
ingredient, also known as economic adulteration,
does not carry a health hazard for consumers.
However, this statement is not generally valid when
it comes to adulterated milk and milk products.
Consumers who are allergic to cows’ milk may suffer
severely if they ingest ovine or carpine milk that
was fraudulently mixed with bovine
milk or whey.
Consequently, it is necessary to set up a complicated
legal framework to ensure proper consumer
protection and encourage
fair trade practices.
Whatever the type of fraud, authenticity
tests rely either on there being a fundamental
difference between the original and the adulterant,
or on an intimate knowledge of the
products’ composition
and possible ranges of
compositional
variation.
Risky business
Detecting fraud is complicated, because of the
fact that quantities of certain indicators vary due
to biological, climatic, agronomic and temporal
factors. Moreover, processing can dramatically
change the composition of minor constituents.
Overly stringent specifications cannot be set for
food inspection, as this will eventually increase
the number of false-positive results.
20 | M&J RETAIL
Since some processors are dependent on the
underlying principles to detect fraud, they have
managed to tailor-blend “milk” in such a way that
it complies with product specifications. In many
cases no fundamental differences exist between
the genuine and adulterated product.
The most common practices found in the South
African market are:
• Extraneous water. Since milking and
processing
plants are wet cleaned, the most
common potential adulterator in milk is extraneous
water. Constant non-conformances will
be an indication that water is being added
• Detergents/sterilisers are accidentally added
to milk during production
• Neutralisers are used to mask acidity that has
developed
• Skim-milk powder is used to elevate milk solids
• Whey and water is added
• Preservatives or inhibitory substances are
added to milk to extend shelf-life
• Mixing cow’s milk with goat’s milk

The quality police

Purity criter Milk prices set to boil over [Mumbai]

Comments | Times of India, The, Jul 7, 2010 | by
Tembhekar, Chittaranjan
MUMBAI: Petrol and diesel look set to fuel a hike in the price of your cutting chai.
In Maharashtra, including the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the prices of milk and
milk-based products will rise by Re 1 per litre from next week.
Only three months ago, buffalo milk price went up by Rs 2 per litre cow milk by Re 1 every
litre after a dispute between the branded distributors and private dealer, who had started
buying milk from dairies at a higher rate, affecting the distribution of cooperative majors.
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Major suppliers like Mahanand, Warna and Gokul, are expected to effect the rise by July 11,
but other companies, like Amul and Mother Dairy, are yet to finalise the hike.
Representatives of prominent milk distributors in the state will meet in Mumbai on Tuesday
to decide on the price rise. Diwakar Panikar of Mahanand Dairy said hiking prices by Re 1
was the necessity following the fuel price hike, but final decision would be taken after the
Tuesday meeting. As of now, Rs 34/litre full-cream buffalo milk is all set to become Rs
35/litre and the Rs 26/litre toned cow milk will cost Rs 27/litre.
According to a source, in the state, the milk cooperatives always charge Rs2-3 more for each
litre than other states. "Local cooperatives drive the prices up as and when 'required' even if
there is no need," alleged an official of a milk brand in the state.
However, B B Bhandare of Warana Dairy said this time, the prices would have to go up to
cope with the fuel costs; a considerable amount of fuel is used to procure milk from dairies,
to process the raw product in factories and later to distribute. "Following the recent hike in
fuel charges, it will have to be recovered minimally from the consumers as te amount paid to
the dairies cannot be cut down," said Bhandare.
A few days ago, Amul raised the price in Delhi and in some other parts of the country,
excluding Maharashtra. Consumers are, however, not ready to shell out anymore as "in the
past three to four years, these cooperatives have hiked milk prices from Rs 18 per liter to Rs
34 per litre". Shirish Deshpande of Grahak Panchayat said there had been no control on milk
prices in the state as there was no monitoring mechanism. "Most times, people are charged
higher than the price written on the milk cartons and cases of adulteration are also rampant.
The government should pay attention to such issues," said Deshpande. For Reprint Rights:
timescontent.com
Copyright Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited Jul 7, 2010
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved
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Milk and caustic soda!

Wednesday, December 01, 2010
By Kunal Chonkar

With the busting of an adulterated milk racket at Worli, it is now clear that residents
sipping tea, coffee or just drinking milk, from a milk bag purchased or dropped in
many localities in South Mumbai, have actually been consuming a crazy cocktail of
caustic soda and other hazardous chemicals mixed with the milk
With the arrest of four people, the Lok Jagran Manch (LJM) along with the Worli police on
Monday have busted a milk adulteration racket being operated from six rooms of a
Gandhinagar chawl in Worli. The arrested have been identified as Manju Yadav (24), Ramaa
Yadav (30), Sushma Indla (26) and Ajay Mohite.

As per the FIR, the four have been adulterating about 600 litres of milk on a daily basis for
the last two years, and have been creating 1,200 litres from it. They were distributing this
adulterated milk across 15 residential colonies between Worli and Prabhadevi. The LJM also
suspect that around 25 litres of the milk was being supplied to the Shardashram School
everyday.

“We were tipped-off by one of our local volunteers about the racket being operated in
Dhobighat area near Gandhinagar. We kept a strong vigil, and even followed their supply
chain for a week before raiding their hideout,” claimed Pravin Yerunkar, Chairperson, LJM.

After successfully collecting evidence about the racket, the LJM along with the Worli police
raided the hideout at around 4 am on Monday and seized 200 litres of adulterated milk.

Investigations revealed that the suspects would collect the milk from authorized agents at 4 in
the morning and would later dilute it with caustic soda, lactose powder and milk powder.
They would then sell the milk at the nearby residential complexes, informed Yerunkar.

“During our investigation, we discovered that the suspects would collect around 600 litres of
milk each day and would make it 1,200 litres after diluting it with water and the chemicals,”
said Deepak Chalke, Secretary, LJM.

The gang would slit the crease area of the milk bag using a blade, then empty it and refill it
with the adulterated liquid. “In order to reseal the crease, they would heat the plastic bag
using specially designed stove pins, seal them and would later sell or distribute them openly,”
said Chalke. Milk bags of well-known brands like Amul, Gokul and Mahananda were
confiscated from the gang.

“We were offered a bribe of around Rs.25,000. The gang also informed us that they used to
pay the local cops Rs.15,000 to overlook their crime,” said Chalke.

However, the police have refuted the allegation and have booked all the four accused under
Sections 272, 273, 420 and 434 of the IPC.

The LJM further informed that around 25 people were involved in the racket, but because of
a tip-off from the police, there were only four arrests possible as the rest managed to flee.

Target areas:
Shardashram School, Marathon Tower, Bhairav Darshan Colony, Laxmi Nivas, Kumbhar
Wada, Bharat Nivas, Railway Quarters, Adarsh Nagar, Shiv Sagar Colony, Shivaji Nagar,
Century Bazaar and several residential colonies in Prabhadevi area.