Minimising Unintentionally added Contaminants in Milk by Good Practices @ Dairy Farm

With approximately 1 lakh crore INR, India is all set to become a giant market on the global dairy map. In 2018 India produced approx 22 percent of global dairy volume which indicates the importance of India in the dairy segment.

- Anurag Mishra

Since India has a maximum vegetarian population and milk as an undeclared national heath drink, we should not be surprised that India is the largest milk producer with approx 22 % of global production and the biggest milk consumption market as well.

While Indian dairy farmers acknowledge their responsibility towards producing good quality milk; unfortunately Indian milk quality is questionable from time to time both locally and internationally; mostly because of microbiological and chemical contaminants often found in the milk.

Significant improvements have been done by government to minimise the intentional adulteration and the same is visible, which is very encouraging; at the same time, contamination resulting from unintentional adulteration is still prevalent and is a matter of serious concern.

A detailed survey by FSSAI in 2018 on Milk Safety & Quality revealed improved quality, with areas of concern as well. Overall, above 93% of the samples that is 5976 out of 6,432 samples were found to be absolutely safe for human consumption. This is undoubtedly good news for the Indian consumers; however about 41% samples, though safe, fell short of one or another quality parameter or standard.

On intentional adulteration the survey results showed that out of 6,432 samples of milk 12 samples were adulterated rendering those samples unsafe for human consumption. Six samples were found adulterated with hydrogen peroxide, three with detergents, two with urea and one sample was found to have neutralizers.,