79 P.C FAKE MILK, GHEE IN MARKET, OVER Rs 5 LAKH CRORE RACKET

The fake or adulterated products exceed the production of the basic raw material, milk, in the country. How much is the fake product has different figures from 7 to 79 percent of the packaged milk.

The issue is snowballing into a major controversy over adulterated laddoo prasadam and has shaken the
country because of the supposedly adulterated ghee or a just combination of animal fat-based product supplied to Tirumala Tirupati, a widely revered Hindu temple in Andhra Pradesh. The “ghee” supplied by a Tamilnadu dairy was sold at Rs 320 a kg, claimed to be FSSAI certified. At least 3 tonnes of it were sent to the Ayodhya Ramlala Temple at its pran pratistha ceremony on January 22, 2024.

The ghee market in India was valued at Rs 3,203 billion in 2023. It is expected to grow to Rs 6,931 billion by 2032, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9 percent. The fake ghee and milk product earnings may be double the market of the pure milk and its products.

Interestingly, for puja purposes “special” mustard oil to “pure” ghee are sold openly. The fake milk and ghee market would be worth Rs 5 lakh crore.

The average market price of any packaged ghee is Rs 460 to Rs 500 plus, though quality of these can’t be vouched for. It has not only raised suspicion about “ghee” quality but also capability of the country to produce such large quantities of paneer, ghee or clarified butter, (a traditionally valued fat), mawa/ khowa, butter milk, ice cream and various sweetmeat products, including perhaps milk chocolates

According to a report in Dainik Jagaran on September 22, to produce a kilo of ghee, 25 litres of milk is required and the unadulterated ghee can’t be priced for less than Rs 1500 to Rs 2000. The story is attributed to the pure ghee producers.

Officially, India’s total milk production in 2022-2023 was 230.58 million tonnes, a 58 percent increase from 2014-2015. This makes India the world’s top milk producer, contributing 25 percent of global milk  production. The country produced over 6.7 million metric tons of butter in 2023, making it the world’s top butter-producing country. This accounts for 58 percent of the world’s total butter production.

In 2020, India produced around 170,000 metric tons (or 17 lakh quintals) of ghee. India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of ghee because it is the world’s largest producer of cow and buffalo milk, according to the department of animal husbandry & dairying.

The dairy sector is the single largest agricultural commodity contributing 5 per cent of the national economy
and employing more than 8 crore farmers directly. Milk production in the country has grown at a compound annual growth rate of about 6.2 per cent to reach 209.96 million tonnes in 2020-21 from 146.31 million tonnes in 2014-15. That’s impressive. So is the contrary, the concern. Nearly half of all dairies in India fall in the unorganised sector and adulteration of ghee, is rampant, experts say. Checks to ensure quality, they say,
are irregular and often difficult.

According to the Economic Survey of 2021-22, of the total milk produced in rural areas, the marketable surplus is nearly 52 percent. Of this, “less than half of the milk sold is handled by the organised sector comprising dairy cooperatives and private dairy enterprises, while the rest is handled by the unorganised sector”, the survey stated.

There are varying estimates of the amount of adulterated milk in India. A 2018 FSSAI study found that only
62.3 percent of milk sold in India meets quality standards. A Consumer Guidance Society of India (CGSI) report found that 79 percent of branded or loose milk in the market is adulterated. Some 70.99 percent of loose milk packets in Maharashtra do not comply with FSSAI standard specifications. Only 15 percent branded milk packets match FSSAI standards, loose milk fares better at 22 percent standardisation.

In July 2024, 3,000 kg of adulterated ghee was seized in Gujarat. Almost at the same time, a team seized fake ghee at a retail mart in Jaipur, supposedly branded as state’s popular brand Saras. About 5 quintals of fake Amul butter and ghee was seized in Noida, in June 2023, as the police busted a gang. Madhya Pradesh
state police raided three factories in Morena and Bhind districts on July 19 and arrested 50 people at
different places from Bhopal to Delhi having a chain of factories supplying two lakh litres of “milk” daily to five states. Also is seized a huge quantity of chemicals – sodium thiosulfate, caustic soda, chloroform, cheap cooking oil, hydrogen peroxide and shampoo used along for spurious “branded” milk.

Milk adulteration is a growing problem, with some estimates suggesting that up to 50 percent of milk is diluted to increase profits. The per capita milk consumption, as per the Economic Survey 2021- 22, is 427 grams. According to the National Statistical Office’s (NSO) household consumer expenditure (HCE) survey for 2011-12, the monthly per capita consumption of milk was 4.33 litres in rural India and 5.42 litres in urban India.

The FSSAI out of the random total samples of 73 branded and 340 loose unbranded samples, found only 87 or 21 percent having standard specifications in 2023. Among the branded milk samples only 15 percent adhered to FSSAI standard.

Dr Sitaram Dixit, chairman, CGSI, stated, “According to the research conducted last year, the contamination has increased by 5 per cent.” The most recent nationwide survey on milk and milk products in India was conducted by the FSSAI in May 2023. This survey is aimed at assessing the quality and safety of milk products and to curb adulteration. While the full results are still being compiled, earlier surveys highlighted that about 7 percent of milk samples were adulterated with harmful substances. The FSSAI has, meanwhile, launched nationwide surveillance on milk and its products to curb adulteration.

What has happened at Tirupati is merely the tip of the iceberg. With 79 percent products being adulterated, the spurious market may be having a huge share of Rs 5 lakh crore or more as per conservative estimates and is a great health hazard.

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