Most packed milk in market ‘dangerous’ for humans: NGO

CHANDIGARH - Various brands of packed milk available in the market are “dangerous” for humans, a Punjab-based NGO said Sunday, citing laboratory tests.

According to Consumer Protection Force, samples of seven leading brands of packed milk were sent a testing laboratory in Gurgaon, for two tests: the total plate count, which is the total bacteria count in the milk, and coliform count, a general indicator of sanitary conditions in dairy production and processing environments.

“The results were shocking. Acceptable levels of total plate count for pasteurised milk, as per industry norms, are 30,000 cfu/ml (colony forming unit/millilitre) and if it is over 50,000 cfu/ml, then the milk is unfit for human consumption. In the test report, the readings for all the brands ranged from 1,000,000 cfu/ml to 66,000,000 cfu/ml,” the NGO’s president Rajiv Tandon told reporters here.

While the prescribed norm for coliform count is 10 cfu/ml, it ranged from 60 to 710,000 cfu/ml in all brands, Tandon said, adding they had consulted senior physicians and they maintained that regular consumption of such milk “can cause death in two years time”.

The NGO members now plan to meet Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to apprise him about the situation.

“We have all proofs available with us and we urge both the central and state governments to immediately intervene and save the life of thousands of people. If they do not take any concrete step, we will intensify our campaign after one month,” Tandon said.