Surat: Several samples of cow and buffalo milk taken by the food safety department of the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) were found to be substandard when the reports were declared on Monday. Officials said the samples were taken about 15 days ago from various parts of the city. The SMC stepped up food testing after police units such as the state monitoring cell, special operations group and police stations, busted rackets involved in the manufacturing and sale of counterfeit milk-based products. In the past few months, police raided units allegedly producing ‘paneer’ and ‘ghee’ from materials other than milk, prompting the department to widen surveillance and sampling.According to the recent report of the Public Health Laboratory of the SMC, seven cow milk samples failed to meet quality parameters due to low milkfat and solids-not-fat (SNF) levels. Both are key indicators of milk composition to detect dilution or adulteration. The substandard cow milk samples were taken from Shree Nath Milk Dairy on Singanpor Road; Shree Krushna Dairy in Bamroli; A One Dairy and Maa Chamunda Dairy in Unn; Shree Bhagya Lakshmi Dairy in Nanpura; S K Patel Dairy at Pandesara; and a cattle shed near Dharmayug Society in Udhna.A buffalo milk sample taken from Radhe Dudh Mandli on Abrama Road was also found substandard on the same grounds: low milkfat and SNF.An ice-cream sample taken from Siddhi Ice Cream at Parle Point also failed testing. The sample, sold as as Kaju Draksh ice-cream, was found to contain less milkfat than required under applicable standards.SMC officials said the intensified drive aims to curb adulteration and ensure compliance with food safety standards across the city’s dairy supply chain.“In most cases, low milkfat and SNF means more water. This is mainly the practice of adding water to increase the quantity of milk. So far, we have not come across the use of other product than milk for adulteration,” said a health official.
