Patiala, September 21: A month after the police raided a factory manufacturing spurious milk products and supplying these to various Punjab districts and neighbouring states, the referral food testing laboratory in Ghaziabad has established that “eight out of 11 milk and milk product (MMP) samples” seized are unfit for human consumption.
As many as 100 sweet shops and dairy owners got regular supply of paneer, ghee and butter from Singla Milk Chilling Centre in Mehon village, near Devigarh in Patiala, which was raided on August 16 by the Patiala police.
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner and Mission Tandarust Director Kahan Singh Pannu said test reports had confirmed that paneer and ghee unfit for humans was being manufactured. “He (the owner) could face penalty as high as Rs 15 lakh and his food licence would be cancelled.”
According to District Health Officer Krishan Singh, the report has found three samples of milk, one each of paneer, butter, desi ghee and cow ghee to be sub-standard and “unfit for human consumption”.
Interestingly, samples taken from the same centre during previous raids had passed tests at the same lab in the past three years.
Police officials who interrogated the accused factory owner, Anil Kumar Singla, claimed he had struck a Rs 15,000 deal with health officials for each sample collected in the August raid.
Patiala SSP Mandeep Singh Sidhu said a fortnight before Diwali in 2015, some shops sourcing milk products from the accused were raided in the Arya Samaj area of the town by the local police and health officials.
“Health officials also collected samples in 2017 from Singla Milk Chilling Centre. All paneer and milk samples passed the tests at the state lab,” he said, adding that they had raided the unit after getting specific inputs that the unit used chemicals and detergents to manufacture spurious paneer and ghee.
The latest report also found the centre guilty of selling misbranded desi ghee and cow ghee. Those giving false description about the nature or substance of a product, or promising false guarantee, are liable to pay a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh.
In August, the police had exposed how adulterated paneer was allegedly making its way into local markets in connivance with health officials for Rs 5,000 per month. Also, these officials charged Rs 10,000 for each food sample promising a favourable lab report. The Punjab Health Department is yet to initiate action against the erring officials.
The police had sealed the factory after recovering refined oil, soda, acid and detergent powder. Singla was arrested after the police seized 7,000 litres of spurious milk, 323 bags of skimmed powered milk, 250 litres of chemicals used in making adulterated milk, 20 quintals of paneer and 12 quintals of ghee.
Source Tribune India
