Chandigarh, June 7
Are you sure what you are taking every morning as a part of your breakfast is natural milk? Even the airtight pouch you get from your milk vendor does not guarantee its contents. It could be natural milk — that is an emulsion of animal fat in a solution of sugar, mineral salts and proteins in a colloidal suspension — or a chemical mix of urea, caustic soda, refined oil, detergents and poster colour that gives it a milk-like look.
Every summer, the yield of milch cattle comes down considerbaly. To plug the demand-supply gap and make a fast buck, a number of unscruplous elements gang up to set up makeshift synthetic milk factories. Against a good quality of natural milk that costs anywhere between Rs 30 and 40 per litre, these units produce “synthetic milk” at Rs 4 to 6/litre, depending upon the quality of refined oil used.
A statewide survey carred out by The Tribune revealed easy availability of synthetic milk across Punjab. Interestingly, the health authorities have not been able to uncover any clandestaine milk-producing unit this summer.
In 2007, the health department had seized a tanker in Samana containing 6,000 litres of synthetic milk. Another raid led to recovery of 20,000 litres of synthetic milk in Rajpura in 2008 and this year again 20,000 litres of synthetic milk was taken in possession during a special search operation at Rohti Bridge, near Nabha.
On a day when the entire Punjab was celebrating Baisakhi, the birthday of Khalsa, the health department officials recovered 800 litres of milk from a mini truck near Kharar. All samples of the milk could not meet the standard tests for natural milk. In Sangrur, a raid was conducted at a milk collection centre on March 19 this year where two samples of mixed milk and synthetic milk each were taken. Foreign fat or non-animal fat was found in the mixed milk samples, while there was no “fat” found in the synthetic milk samples.
On the same day, another sample of boiled milk was taken from a
roadside Dhaba in Sangrur district. Again, this milk was found to be without animal or organic fat. Investigations reveal that the manufacture of synthetic milk started in the northern states of Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab from where it spread to other parts of the country.
To prepare synthetic milk, chemicals like urea, caustic soda, refined oil (cheap cooking oil) and commonly used detergents are mixed together. Detergents are added to emulsify and dissolve the oil in water, giving the frothy solution the characteristic white colour of milk.
To give the milk its basic property of fat, refined oil is added. Caustic soda is added to the blended mixture of chemical and natural milk to neutralise the effect of increased acidity, thereby preventing it from turning sour during transport. Experts say that Urea and sometime sugar is added for levelling the contents of solid-not-fat (SNF) as are present in natural milk.
Though chemical or synthetic milk looks like natural milk, it has a different taste and is devoid of all properties for which natural milk is taken as a part of healthy human diet. A serious health hazard, synthetic milk is carcinogenic — having cancer-causing properties. Urea and caustic soda are harmful to the heart, liver and kidneys. Caustic soda, which contains sodium, acts as a slow poison for those suffering from hypertension and heart ailments. It also prevents the body from utilising Lysine, an essential amino acid in milk, which is required by growing babies.
To be concluded
With inputs from Varinder Singh (Patiala), Sushil Goyal (Sangrur), Megha Mann (Ropar), Gurdeep Mann (Fatehgarh Sahib), Bipin Bhardwaj (Jalandhar), Rajay Deep (Bathinda), Dharmendra Joshi (Kapurthala) and PK Jaiswar (Amritsar).
