Mother Dairy denies detergent in milk, sends sample for retest

New Delhi: Mother Dairy on Wednesday denied allegations that detergent was found in one of the samples of milk picked up from its collection centres, saying it has sent it for retesting in a lab in Kolkata.

A day after the UP Food and Drug Administration said it had found detergent in one of the milk samples of Mother Dairy, the co-operative said the tested was done on "loose milk samples collected at village level" which were yet to be accepted by it.

"The first test was conducted in Meerut by UP FDA and it found solid not fat (SNF) and there was no adulteration. We questioned SNF and sent the same samples for retesting to a lab in Kolkata, we are still awaiting the results," Mother Dairy Managing Director S Nagarajan told reporters here.

Mother Dairy said the milk sample, which the UP FDA claimed to find presence of detergent, was drawn even before reaching the chilling centre where the first level of testing happens to ascertain the quality of milk for further processing.

"It is unfortunate that loose milk samples collected at village level which are yet to be accepted for processing at our factory has been attributed to Mother Dairy brand," he said, adding its milk was "safe for consumption".

Nagarajan said Mother Dairy has not yet got any official report of the tests from the UP FDA and was awaiting for details on the same.

He said Mother Dairy would take up the issue with central food safety regulator FSSAI.

Mother Dairy said that it under goes four levels of testing at input, processing, dispatches and even at the market level.

"Only after securing clearances from all quality measures, the milk is then accepted for processing and re-examined after processing, thus ensuring the product available is safe for consumption," Nagarajan said.

The UP Food and Drug Administration yesterday said it had found detergent in one of the samples of milk picked from Mother Dairy's collection centres.

"Results showed that the samples were sub-standard and one of the two contained detergent," UP FDA official in Agra, Ram Naresh Yadav had said.

The samples had been picked up from Mother Dairy's collection centres in Bah in November 2014.

"The samples were first sent to Lucknow and later to Kolkata on the demand of the company," Yadav said.

Mother Dairy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board. It procures milk from western UP, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.

It sells 35 lakh litres per day in NCR, UP, Haryana, Punjab and other parts of the country.