Most milk sold in India adulterated

By Ankush Chibber, 10-Jan-2012

A national survey in India has revealed almost 70% of the milk sold and consumed in India is adulterated by contaminants such as detergent and skim milk powder. But water was the biggest contaminant.

70% of Indian milk is contaminated with water, detergent and more, a survey has found

The National Survey on Milk Adulteration 2011 conducted by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had a dual objective to identify the common adulterants in milk in rural and urban areas of different states, and to identify the non-conforming samples in loose and packed milk.

The authority concluded that the addition of water to milk is most common adulterant, which not only reduces the nutritional value of milk but contaminated water may also pose health risk to the consumers.

The survey saw FSSAI researchers randomly select and analyse 1,791 samples from 33 states, with the maximum samples collected from the state of Andhra Pradesh (75), and the least from Jammu & Kashmir and Sikkim (18).

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