After 60 yrs, India to get new safety standards for milk
NEW DELHI: India has introduced new safety standards for milk to fix new limits for naturally-occurring nutrients and fat.
The country will get new national standards after 60 years that will standardise outdated benchmarks for determining adulteration. According to the revised standards introduced by top food regulator — Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) — fat content now ranges between 1.5% and 6%, down from a minimum of 3% before.
Solid non fat (SNF) content, including vitamins and minerals, must now range between 6% and 9% for toned and full cream milk from buffalo, cow, goat or sheep. The standards were revised because of the change in environmental conditions, quality of fodder, water that cattle consume.
“Why should someone be persecuted if his or her cow or buffalo is producing milk less in fat content than the permissible limit? We have hybrid cattle these days and the quality of milk is changing naturally across the country, which is why we needed to revisit old standards,” said Pawan Agarwal, CEO of FSSAI.
HT had broken the story about how FSSAI was planning to revise milk safety standards in April last year. The new standards have been made operational with effect from August 2, and a directive has been sent to food safety commissioners. For the first time, standards for camel milk have also been added.
Under the Food Safety and Standards Act, FSSAI had notified the draft amendment regulations regarding revision of standards in December last year.
“We had put it up on the website for comments and received a huge response. After screening all the responses meticulously, we have revised the standards...” said an FSSAI official.
The regulator revisited existing standards and aligned them with current codex standards (an internationally recognised set of standards) and current practices in the dairy sector. Companies fortifying milk with essential nutrients will have to mention it on the label. Norms that apply to health supplements, nutraceuticals or food for special dietary use or medical use shall also apply to dairy products involving probiotics and prebiotics.