Friday, February 12, 2016

Consumers decry quality of loose milk in Sgr

 With majority of people in Kashmir consuming dairy products especially milk and curd in loose form, health experts suggest that government should ensure strict quality control.

According to health experts, the loose milk being sold in local markets is one of the major reasons for some food-borne disease in Srinagar.

“The loose milk being sold in Srinagar is nowhere put to any check by the authorities. Resultantly, the vendors in the unorganized sector find it easy to sell contaminated and low quality milk to the consumers,” Irfan Ahmad, a dietician said.

According to Irfan while the increasing health and safety concerns have enlarged the market for packaged milk outside Kashmir, “the position in Srinagar is quite contrary.”

“Here the authorities are excessively checking only the quality of the packaged milk products, while they have given total liberty to the unorganized market. The result is that the loose milk and curd being sold in the unorganized market are not put to any quality test,” experts said.

The consumers in the city here said that the milk being sold in Srinagar is brought in untidy large cans. “No care is being taken to ensure that purity and freshness of the milk,” they said.

Pertinently, according to certain estimates the consumption of packaged liquid milk in India has increased from 21 per cent to 28 per cent in past 5 years.

Nazir Ahmad, a consumer said, “The loose milk being sold here escapes the government attention. While a lot of attention is paid by the authorities to check the quality of packaged milk, nothing is being done to put the loose milk available in the market to test.”

According to the health experts and the consumers the government agencies tasked with ensuring the quality control of the food items must depute special teams in all Srinagar areas to check the quality of the loose milk being sold by the milkmen in the unorganized sector.

“If the government agencies don’t hesitate to check the diary products of the milk processing companies in Kashmir, we fail to understand why don’t they test the loose milk and curd available in the market,” said Jan Muhammad and Mehraj ud Din, two consumers from Downtown here.

Resource:http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/business/consumers-decry-quality-of-loose-milk-in-sgr/190534.html

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