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The Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences and Vice President, CSIR Dr. Harsh Vardhan today dedicated Systems for Detection of Adulteration and analysis of Milk. He complimented the Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-CEERI), Pilani of CSIR for developing this platform technology to tackle a national level health hazard due to adulteration in milk.
The Minister said that he will soon be reaching out to the Union Health Minister and the Health Ministers of all state governments to adopt and deploy this technology platform to address the problem of milk adulteration in the country. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will also be asked to bring in the required regulatory intervention so as to ensure the delivery of quality milk, he added.
Dr. Harsha Vardhan pointed that our country ranks number one across the world for milk production, contributing to about 18% of the world’s total milk. By volume, milk production is to the tune of about 146 million tonnes in the country. But it is feared that over 60% of the milk is contaminated due to malpractices in milk supply chain which includes dilution with unsafe water. The milk is otherwise said to be adulterated with contaminants such as urea, salt, detergent, liquid soap, boric acid, caustic soda, soda and hydrogen peroxide which have hazardous health effects.
The gravity of the situation had been such that NITI Aayog identified the problem of detecting adulteration in the milk within three minutes at Rs. 4 or less, as one of the Grand Challenge Areas being considered under the Atal Innovation Mission.
In this backdrop, the Minister appreciated the initiative of CSIR for developing and deploying this technology solution, Ksheer-Scanner, which instantaneously detects the above-identified adulterants in milk. It is a low- cost portable system with user-friendly features. It enables detection of contaminants in just 40-45 seconds at the per sample cost of less than 50 paise. The minimum detection levels of major contaminants are: Urea: 1 gm/l; salt: 2 gm/l; detergent: 2 gm/l; soap: 1%; and soda: 1 gm/l.
DG, CSIR Dr. Girish Sahni, stated that among the many benefits of Ksheer Scanner, the system offers automated scanning of raw milk samples at milk collection points. He remarked that it is safe to use and ideal for installation at milk collection centres of milk societies at village and tehsil levels. The system can also be useful for on-the-spot milk testing by food inspectors. The system has been successfully tested at various dairies located in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, he added.
[“Source-business-standard”]