Hyderabad: Food safety authorities of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are yet to be a part of the collection of samples for the mandatory Food Safety Authority of India nationwide milk survey, 2016. National Milk Quality Survey is to assess quality of milk with focus on unsafe or adulterated milk in more than 120 cities across India and over 1,700 samples will be picked up and tested for Fat and SNF content and 13 common adulterants. According to food safety authorities in the state, they are busy bifurcating the staff and yet to start the process.
Telangana food safety department, deputy controller, Mr G. Vinod Dayal said, “Till recently, we have been working on the bifurcation of staff between both the states. Now these staff shall be notified as legal authority as per the Act, which is mandatory. We will be chipping in as soon as this is sorted out.” “Two months ago as part of regular exercise we collected 12 samples in the city of Hyderabad and tested them in our laboratory. Out of these seven samples were found to be substandard on fat content. However there is no issue of adulteration or using detergents here among the samples tested,” he added.
According to FSSAI all the states and UTs will be covered for the sampling. FSSAI said that the state authority has to modify the list of cities selected depending upon the availability of milk, degree of risk, and hot spots where chances of milk adulteration is high. Tests will be carried out to check fat, vegetable oil, detergent, hydrogen peroxide, formalin, sugar, glucose, urea, starch, boric acid, ammonium sulphate, nitrates and cellulose maltodextrin. Some 1,791 samples were drawn from 33 states in 2011 survey.
