M Raghuram
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Written By: M Raghuram | Updated : September 12, 2013 10:39 AM IST
The state government's decision to provide milk powder instead of fresh milk to school children under its Ksheera Bhagya programme is being viewed as a measure to bail out the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), which is groaning under the weight of excess stock of milk powder, rather than as a measure to address malnutrition among the young.
The Ksheera Bhagya programme was announced by the Siddaramaiah government to provide students with 150 ml of milk thrice a week.However, the government's decision to provide the students skimmed milk powder (SMP) instead of fresh milk led to the suspicion that it was a plan to offload over 18,000 tonnes of SMP in KMF inventory that was reaching its shelf life.
The results of that decision seem to be showing. At least two incidents of the milk made out of SMP turning out to be not fit for consumption have been reported in the state in the last three weeks, the latest from Mundgod in Uttara Kannada district. Milk made out of SMP in schools at Mundgod is said to have become grey brown in colour.
On investigation, it was found that the bags of milk powder had no expiry date. One bag had a date seal manually impressed on the bag indicating that the product could be used till August 20 this year.
In both bags, the powder had hardened and was discoloured. Earlier, on August 5, 20 children had reportedly fallen sick after consuming milk prepared out of SMP at Hunavinodu village in Hosadurga taluk in Chitradurga district.
Pramod Badthi, health inspector of Mundgod taluk, asked the school headmaster not to prepare milk out of the SMP bags that have no expiry dates or if the quality of powder was doubtful. Samples of powder will be sent to food testing laboratory in the district headquarters for a contamination check.
Reprocessing the processed
In another disturbing development, the KMF is reportedly undertaking 're-processing' of the existing stock of the SMP. It means the 18,000 tonnes of SMP would be converted into milk by adding water, for making SMP again with new validation marks and expiry dates to conform to the subsidy rules of the Central government.
'Such re-processing reduces the quality of the product and its effect on the health of the consumers is as yet not known,' said a dairy scientist in the Hassan unit of KMF.
Source: DNA
