The UP Food and Drug Administration in Agra said that it has found detergent in one of the samples of Mother Dairy’s milk packets, a claim contested by the Delhi-based company.
“Results showed that the samples were sub-standard and one of the two contained detergent,” UP FDA official in Agra, Ram Naresh Yadav, told PTI.
The samples had been picked up from Mother Dairy’s collection centres in the city of Bah in November 2014. “The samples were first sent to Lucknow and later to Kolkata on the demand of the company,” Yadav said.
Mother Dairy, however, has categorically denied any adulteration of milk it supplies in pouches.
One might think that the news would have saddened, scared or even disappointed consumers. Instead, it resulted in a host of jokes on Twitter.
Here’s a “sample”.
Sandeep Ghosh, the head of Milk, Fruits and Vegetables Section at Mother Dairy in Delhi, said, “Mother Dairy milk undergoes four levels of thorough testing at various levels – input, processing, dispatches and even at market level.”
Every tanker of milk reaching the plants passes a series of 23 stringent quality tests to check any deviation from defined parameters. These tests assist in detecting contamination of milk through water, urea, detergent, oil, etc.
– Sandeep Ghosh, Mother Dairy Official
The organisation follows 100% testing protocol rather than resorting to random testing procedures, Ghosh said.
(With inputs from PTI)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)