Foreign fat detected in paneer samples seized in Kapurthala

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 26

The 1.4 quintals of paneer samples, seized by joint teams of the Health and Dairy Departments at Kapurthala on September 7, have been found to be adulterated with foreign fat.

The paneer was seized from an Innova car coming from Gurdaspur district during a naka being laid at Subhanpur on September 7. The paneer samples on Wednesday reached the office of the Assistant Commissioner of Food, Kapurthala.

As per the report of the State Food Laboratory Kharar, the fat extracted from the sample is not milk fat, it is rather foreign fat.

The report says “BRR (Butyro - Refractometer Reading) of the extracted fat of the contents of the sample at 40 degree centigrade is 47.2 and 49.4 against the prescribed standard of 40 to 43, which indicates the presence of foreign fat other than milk fat in the contents of both the samples, hence the samples are substandard.”

The paneer was processed, packed and marketed by Maa Durga Dairy Manufacturing, Thanewal village, PO Babehali, Gurdaspur district of Punjab. During the raids, the seized paneer was found in two conditions - loose in 13 polythene packs and sealed in 15 printed labelled packs (each pack of about 5 kg).

As many as two samples of paneer were taken. As per the information mentioned on the wrapper of the paneer, it was priced at Rs 260 per kg. As per the bill handed over to the buyer, the price is Rs 170 per kg and this is the price at which it was sold to customers, so it was suspected to be of inferior quality.

What the report says

The BRR (butyro-refractometer reading) of the extracted fat of the contents of paneer seized from an Innova car during a naka being laid at Subhanpur on September 7 has been found to be 47.2 and 49.4 against the prescribed standard of 40 to 43. This indicates the presence of foreign fat other than milk fat in the contents of both samples, hence the samples are substandard.