Low khoya price raises questions over quality

AMRITSAR: Ever wondered how khoya sellers in the market are able to sell it at a price ranging between Rs 120 and Rs 150 per kg when the cost of five litre of milk required for making one kg of khoya is Rs 250

Updated At : 06:13 AM Nov 07, 2018 IST

Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 6

Ever wondered how khoya sellers in the market are able to sell it at a price ranging between Rs 120 and Rs 150 per kg when the cost of five litre of milk required for making one kg of khoya is Rs 250.

Sweet makers say that for getting one kg of khoya, they require five litre of high quality milk. The milk price is around Rs 50 per litre.

For manufacturing khoya, milk needs to be heated for long hours. Sweet makers say that five litre of milk is heated for at least four hours. The skyrocketing prices of LPG add another Rs 100 to the input cost. The cost of labour is additional.

“The manufacturing cost of khoya is around Rs 400 per kg. If a seller is selling it for Rs 150 per kg, it is sure that he or she is doing something wrong,” said a sweet maker, who didn’t want to be named.

The seizure of huge quantities of spurious khoya from various places in the current season has also revealed that substandard skimmed milk powder is being used in most of the case. Astonishingly, the Health Department, in a raid at a manufacturing unit in Rani Ka Bagh last month, found a huge quantity of khoya, but not even a single drop of milk.

“Skimmed milk powder is mixed with poor quality of oil. It does not require heating, thus the hard labour is saved. Even a huge order for khoya can be delivered in less than an hour,” he said.

District Health Officer Dr Lakhbir Singh Bhagowalia said, “We have destroyed around 10 quintals of khoya in the current season and seized hundreds of skimmed milk bags in the last two months. We have started identifying manufacturers to check the menace.”