IMPACT OF MILK FRAUD ON FOOD SAFETY AND HUMAN HEALTH IN INDIA
Compiled & Edited by-DR. RAJESH KUMAR SINGH, (LIVESTOCK & POULTRY CONSULTANT), JAMSHEDPUR, JHARKHAND,INDIA 9431309542, rajeshsinghvet@gmail.com
Introduction
The state of adulteration in milk and milk products in India is such that 68.7 per cent of milk and milk products sold is not as per the standards laid down by the FSSAI said by Mohan Singh Ahluwalia, member, Animal Welfare Board of India which is not only 100 % true but in reality the figure is much more than this.
As we know The Milk in its natural form has a high food value, since it is comprised of a wide variety of nutrients which are essential for proper growth and maintenance of the human body. In recent decades, there has been an upsurge in milk consumption worldwide, especially in developing countries, and it is now forming a significant part of the diet for a high proportion of the global population. As a result of the increased demand, in addition to the growth in competition in the dairy market and the increasing complexity of the supply chain, some unscrupulous producers are indulging in milk fraud. This malpractice has become a common problem in the developing countries, which lack strict vigilance by food safety authorities. Milk is often subjected to fraud (by means of adulteration) for financial gain, but it can also be adulterated due to ill‐informed attempts to improve hygiene conditions. Water is the most common adulterant used, which decreases the nutritional value of milk. If the water is contaminated, for example, with chemicals or pathogens, this poses a serious health risk for consumers. To the diluted milk, inferior cheaper materials may be added such as reconstituted milk powder, urea, and cane sugar, even more hazardous chemicals including melamine, formalin, caustic soda, and detergents. These additions have the potential to cause serious health‐related problems.
Food adulteration is a socio-economic problem especially in the developing countries. Consumption of adulterated food causes serious health problems, hence it has great concern to the food safety. Food fraud is a serious issue which has come under increased scrutiny as a food safety and public health concern in recent years. Regulators, food producers, retailers and consumers all have an interest in safeguarding foods and ensuring they are safe, genuine and of the highest quality. Nevertheless, food adulteration
has been conducted since ancient times, e.g. in Roman times wine adulteration was done, through the addition of sweeteners and coloring agents, or dilution with water, but the scale of adulteration was much more limited to smaller geographical region. But with spatio-temporal variation in the modern food supply systems, this has increased the risk of food adulteration and therefore having a major impact on consumer health.
Major food adulteration occurs with the widely publicized adulteration of milk & milk products. Milk in its natural form has a high food value, since it is comprised of a wide variety of nutrients which are essential for proper growth and maintenance of the human body. Adulterated milk is one which may be spoiled or intentionally altered by illegal addition of a foreign chemical substance. Especially economically motivated adulteration is a subcategory of food fraud and is a cause of public health risks. Milk is an almost ideal food having high nutritive value. It supplies body building proteins, bone forming minerals and health giving vitamins and furnishes energy giving lactose, milk fat and also supplying certain essential fatty acids. According to PFA-1954 (prevention of food adulteration act) definition, “Milk is the normal mammary secretion derived from complete milking of healthy milch animal without either addition thereto or extraction there from. The adulteration is defined as “the fraudulent, intentional substitution or addition of a substance in a product for the purpose of increasing the apparent value of the product or reducing the cost of its production”. Unscrupulous milk producers can increase their margins from the sale of milk through its dilution, extraction of valuable components such as milk fat, which is removed as cream and the addition of cheap bulking additives such as low-quality flavor to increase the value of total solids up to a level which goes unnoticed by consumers. The milk that contains high Solid non-fat (SNF) is of good quality and valuable to the consumers for its dietary value and also to the manufactures for the production of milk products, particularly relating to cheese yields. Other than fat, all solids present in milk are there in solids non-fats. Protein is the most essential component of milk because of its functional properties and nutritional value. The components like lactose, fat also add to the quality of milk and give a certain characteristic to milk products which are to a lesser degree. Milk contains more than 100 substances that are either in solution, suspension or emulsion in water, the important being casein – the major protein of milk, lactose – milk sugar, whey and mineral salts. Table 1: gives a typical composition of the whole raw milk.
Table 1: Typical composition of the whole raw milk
Constituent Buffalo Milk (%) Cow Milk (%)
Water 84.2 86.6
Fat 6.2 4.6
Protein 3.7 3.4
Lactose 5.1 4.9
Minerals 0.7 0.5
Typically, milk is adulterated either for financial gain or due to unhygienic conditions of processing, storage, transportation, marketing etc. Milk adulteration has been widely reported in developing countries such as India, Pakistan, Brazil and China etc.In order to understand the nutritional consequences of fraud, the current trends in total milk production and consumption are reviewed, India’s milk production is 18.5% of the world production. The yearly productions of 13-14 and 14-15 are 137.69 and 146.3 million tons respectively recording a growth of 6.26%.
According to FAO the increase in world milk production is 3.1% while as that of India is 18.5% in the year 2014-15. The figures show high increase in milk production in India as compared to the world. Though India ranks 1st in milk production still it is importing milk products and on the other hand exporting less quantity of milk and milk products to the neighbouring countries. Table-2 shows milk product consumption in India.
Table-2:Annual milk consumption in India.
Milk & Milk Products % of total
consumption
Fluid milk 46%
Ghee(Clarified butter) 27.5%
Butter 6.5%
Yoghurt 07%
Khoa (Dehydrated condensed milk 6.5%
Dry Milk Powder 3.5%
Panner(Cottage cheese) 2%
Other(Ice-cream etc) 1%
(Source: National Dairy Development Board).
Major food adulteration occurs with the widely publicized adulteration of milk & milk products. Milk in its natural form has a high food value, since it is comprised of a wide variety of nutrients which are essential for proper growth and maintenance of the human body. Adulterated milk is one which may be spoiled or intentionally altered by illegal addition of a foreign chemical substance.Especially economically motivated adulteration is
a subcategory of food fraud and is a cause of public health risks. Milk is an almost ideal food having high nutritive value. It supplies body building proteins, bone forming minerals and health giving vitamins and furnishes energy giving lactose, milk fat and also supplying certain essential fatty acids. According to PFA-1954 (prevention of food adulteration act) definition,
“Milk is the normal mammary secretion derived from complete milking of healthy milch animal without either addition thereto or extraction there from. The adulteration is defined as “the fraudulent, intentional substitution or addition of a substance in a product for the purpose of increasing the apparent value of the product or reducing the cost of its production
Food fraud is a serious issue which has come under increased scrutiny as a potential food safety and public health concern in recent years .Regulators, food producers, retailers, and consumers all have an interest in safeguarding foods and ensuring they are safe, genuine, and of the highest quality. Nevertheless, food fraud has been conducted since ancient times, with evidence of laws dating back to Roman times regarding the adulteration of wine, through the addition of sweeteners and coloring agents, or dilution with water. At that time the scale of fraud was much more limited to a smaller geographical region .Because of the growth and increasing complexity of the modern global food supply systems, this has heightened the risk of food fraud to include an entire global population, therefore having a major impact on the ability to protect consumer health .
Food fraud is a broader term than adulteration .An adulterated food is one which may be spoiled or intentionally altered by illegal addition of a foreign chemical substance.Virtually all foods have the potential to be adulterated, but those that are more expensive or are produced under changeable weather and harvesting conditions are especially vulnerable. Economically motivated adulteration is a subcategory of food fraud and is a cause of public health risks .It has been defined as “the fraudulent, intentional substitution or addition of a substance in a product for the purpose of increasing the apparent value of the product or reducing the cost of its production” While the motivation for fraud is often financial, the impact is a real threat to public health; whether a public health incident does in fact follow, the adulteration causes the potential for harm .
Types of MILK fraud.————
Milk products are important components of the diets for many populations. The high nutritional value of milk has led to its high consumption worldwide, but increased demand has also made it prone to fraudulent activity. Unscrupulous milk producers can increase their margins from the sale of milk through its dilution, extraction of valuable components such as milk fat, which is removed as cream, and the addition of cheap bulking additives such as low‐quality flour to increase the value of total solids up to a level which goes unnoticed by consumers. Typically, milk is adulterated either for financial gain or due to poor hygiene conditions of processing, storage, transportation, and marketing. One of the oldest and simplest forms of milk fraud is through the addition of variable volumes of water to artificially increase its volume for greater profit; this can substantially decrease the nutritional value of milk, and if the water added is contaminated there is a risk to human health because of potential waterborne diseases .To the diluted milk, adulterants such as skim milk powder, reconstituted milk, urea, rice flour, salt, starch, glucose, vegetable oil, animal fat, melamine, and whey powder can be added to increase the thickness and viscosity of the milk, and to maintain the composition of fat, carbohydrate, and/or protein. Milk is a perishable commodity so it is likely to get spoiled during transportation, particularly in summer months if effective refrigeration is not available. Therefore, ice (which may be contaminated itself) and some chemicals such as sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, calcium hydroxide, caustic soda (sodium hydroxide), or chemical formalin are added to increase the shelf‐life .In addition, detergents are added to enhance the cosmetic nature of milk as the foamy appearance diminishes when it is diluted with water. Calcium thioglycolate, potassium thioglycolate, or calcium salts of thioglycolic acid have been added to provide whiteness in milk and to give it a genuine appearance .
Milk fraud is one of the most serious issues facing the dairy industry; this not only causes major financial losses but also poses a significant risk to human health. The purpose of this review is to investigate the impacts of milk fraud on nutrition and food safety (chemical food safety risks will be the main focus of this article rather than those relating to spoilage since they are as relevant for unadulterated milk), and to examine the potential human health effects associated with the consumption of adulterated milk. To fully understand the nutritional consequences of fraud, the current global trends in total milk production and consumption are reviewed, along with the importance of milk in the human diet.
Global Trends in Total Milk Production and Consumption—
Milk is nutritionally important as it contains all of the macro‐ and micronutrients required to sustain the life of the neonate and the young infant, as well as adding to the quality of the overall human diet .Thus, milk products are an important part of the diet for most populations globally.
In recent decades, milk product consumption has rapidly increased in a number of developing countries, particularly in parts of East and Southeast Asia; even so, the level of consumption is still lower than in developed countries .The composition of milk product consumption fluctuates across different regions worldwide; while processed milk products (including butter, cheese, and yogurts) are becoming increasingly important, liquid milk is still largely the most important product by volume.
Methods for the Detection of Milk Fraud—
Methods to detect adulterants in milk include measurement of freezing point depression, electrical admittance spectroscopy, single‐frequency conductance measurements, digital image chromatography, ultraviolet (UV) visible light spectroscopy, and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay .
Methods to detecting milk adulteration ——————
Adulterants ————– Detection Methods
1.Urea—–
Potentiometric biosensor, pH measurement, NH sensitive CHEMFET based sensor, pH sensitive field effect transitor.
Frequency admittance measurement, E-nose Electrical
conductivity, Ultrasonic transmitter receiver system,
2.Water————
Freezing point osmometry and freezing point, cryoscopic method
Neutralizers————
Conductivity or pH measurement
3.Milk powder————
FAST (Fluorescence of Advanced maillard products and Soluble Tryptophan)
4.Colour————
Capillary electrophoresis
Electrical conductivity, BRT Test, Spot Test, SNAP test,
5.Antibiotics————-
Chromatography, Biosensor array based on surface
plasma on resonance(SPR), E-Nose.
6.Preservatives————-
Conductivity, Impedance, Capacitance, Piezoelectric transducer, E-Tongue
Milk Fraud and Public Health Effects———-
Some of the adulterants and malpractices associated with milk production have caused public health concerns and malnutrition. An overview of milk fraud incident types and their potential impacts on nutrition and food safety are presented in Table 2 and 3, respectively. The addition of water to milk decreases its nutritional value; for infants and children this may be a serious concern as they are at a critical stage of growth and development and are dependent on milk products for supplies of vital nutrients and so may be at risk of malnutrition. Indicators of undernourishment are manifested as child‐stunting, underweight, wasting, and nutrition‐related child mortality (FAO 2013). In China’s “big head disease” scandal in 2004, after infants were fed a fake formula they rapidly lost weight. The infants were said to have developed “big head disease,” which is a symptom of acute malnutrition, describing the lack of flesh on the limbs and torso, which appear to shrink in comparison with the cranium (BBC NEWS 2004). A further concern about the water used to dilute milk is that it is usually obtained from an unsafe and inexpensive source and may be contaminated with heavy metals, agricultural chemicals, or microorganisms. If milk of such poor standard is consumed it poses a serious threat to the health of its consumers (Kandpal and others 2012). If the water used in the adulterated milk is contaminated by pathogens, then this may well lead to infective diarrhea in children, which can hamper their growth and development besides providing them with fewer calories. Agriculture is an additional source of chemical contamination, with nitrate being the main contaminant. Nitrate can cause methemoglobinemia, or blue‐baby syndrome, in formula‐fed infants less than 3 month of age
Table 2. Overview of milk fraud incident types and their impact on nutrition.
| Adulterant | Cause | Public health risk | Populations most at risk | |
| Water |
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| Skimmed milk powder |
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| Sugars (that is, sucrose/glucose) |
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- This is not definitive list of all the adulterants used in milk. However, these are the main adulterants that have been detected in recent reports of milk fraud and which impact upon nutrition.
Table 3. Overview of milk fraud incident types and their impact on food safety.
| Category | Adulterant | Cause | Public health risk | Populations most at risk | |
| Added substances to increase mass and nutritional content | Vegetable oil |
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| Urea |
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| Melamine |
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| Ammonium sulfate |
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| Preservation action | Formalin |
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| Hydrogen peroxide |
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| Salicylic acid |
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| Caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) |
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| Boric acid |
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| Benzoic acid |
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| Buffers to adjust pH | Neutralizers (carbonates/ bicarbonates) |
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| Residues from sanitation | Detergent |
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- This is no definitive list of all the adulterants used in milk. However, these are the main adulterants that have been detected in recent reports of milk fraud and which impact upon food safety.
The chemicals and other contaminants being used as adulterants in milk have a wide range of acute and chronic effects on human health. The addition of sodium chloride (common salt) in milk can be problematic for those who have hypertension, heart conditions, and chronic kidney or liver ailments. They live under strict salt‐rationing, and if they consume sodium unknowingly in milk it has the potential to cause harm . If the milk is adulterated with sugar then this may contribute to problems in diabetics through elevation of blood sugar levels. If such milk is regularly consumed by individuals who are already diabetic or have a cardiac problem, it can be hazardous .
Formalin is highly toxic to humans in small amounts and is classified as a carcinogen. Its ingestion is known to induce acute poisoning, causing irritation, often leading to dry skin, dermatitis, headaches, dizziness, tearing eyes, sneezing and coughing, and even the development of allergic asthma. Exposure to large amounts has been linked to eye conjunctivitis, nasal and pharyngeal diseases, laryngospasm, and pulmonary edema, though these health effects are unlikely with the concentrations present in adulterated milk .Hydrogen peroxide damages the gastrointestinal cells which can lead to gastritis, inflammation of the intestine, and bloody diarrhea . Detergents have been shown to cause food poisoning and gastrointestinal complications . Some detergents also contain the toxic ingredient dioxane, which is carcinogenic in nature .Chlorine causes low blood pressure, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain .The presence of urea in milk above the cut‐off limit (typically accepted at 70 mg/dL) may cause severe human health problems such as impaired vision, diarrhea, and malfunctioning of the kidneys. Moreover, unnecessary hairs might appear on the face, especially in women and children. It may also lead to swollen limbs, irregular heartbeat, muscle cramps, chills and shivering fever, and cancers, though these are less likely with the concentrations present in the adulterated milk. .Melamine has low oral acute toxicity, but excessive exposure in animals and humans causes urinary stones, crystalluria, and acute renal failure. When humans consume it, infants and children are affected the most because of their milk dependence for nutrition, compounded by immaturity of their organs which renders them vulnerable .In the case of China’s melamine‐tainted milk scandal in 2008, most of the children had symptoms of irritability, dysuria, urination difficulties, renal colic, hematuria, or kidney stone passage. Hypertension, edema, or oliguria also occurred in more severe cases .Carbonates and bicarbonates can cause disruption in hormone signaling that regulates development and reproduction .Sodium carbonate on ingestion may cause irritation along the digestive tract as well as causing vomiting and diarrhea .Boric acid causes eye irritation, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, kidney damage, skin problems, and central nervous system irritation .Short‐term exposure to benzoic acid can irritate the eyes, skin, and respiratory tract, and in sensitive persons can produce adverse effects such as asthma, metabolic acidosis, and convulsions .
Individuals from developing countries are significantly more vulnerable to the consequences of milk fraud as they have a much lower range of food types to choose from and so are more reliant on single sources of nutrition. Therefore, it is possible, indeed likely, that milk fraud could be contributing to some of the health problems associated with malnutrition. This is an area that requires extensive research to collate evidence of this. Malnutrition is a major public health problem in many of these countries, with 90% of the world’s stunted children residing in Africa and South Asia. Stunting results in slowed child growth and can impede brain development. Stunting, along with low birth weight, is also a risk factor for chronic disease in later life, such as hypertension, stroke, osteoporosis, diabetes, and cancer .Furthermore, 70% of the world’s wasted children are shown to live in Asia (this is where much of the milk fraud occurs), with the majority in South Asia (UNICEF, World Bank, and WHO 2012). Wasted children have a weak immune system and are at increased risk of severe malnutrition and death. Childhood malnutrition is shown to be an underlying cause in about 35% of all deaths in children under the age of 5. Macronutrient (protein) and micronutrient (vitamins and minerals) deficiencies remain highly prevalent in many parts of the world (FAO 2013). For example, micronutrient deficiencies continue to be of public health significance in India, and nearly half of the world’s micronutrient‐deficient population is found in India (Arlappa and others 2011). In India, milk products provide a critical source of nutrition and animal protein for a population that is largely vegetarian. Increased milk consumption in India has been seen as a means of treating malnutrition. According to the National Sample Survey 66th Round, July 2009 to June 2010, on the “Nutritional Intake in India” and “Household Consumption of Various Goods and Services in India,” the contribution of milk and milk products to protein intake increased from 3% in the lowest decile class to 15% in the highest in the rural sector and from 5% to 18% in the urban sector (Mani 2013). Nevertheless, little improvement in the nutritional status of children has been shown. Apart from low dietary intake, it is possible that food fraud can contribute to dietary deficiency (Mani 2013). Therefore, in this instance, it is a distinct possibility that the high level (approximately 70%) of milk fraud in India has contributed to malnutrition problems, particularly among children (FSSAI 2012).
Additional recommendations for the prevention of milk fraud, as well as improvement strategies include: better education for developing farmers and networks to avoid malpractice that could present as fraud; improved implementation of detection methods of milk fraud to improve the quality of the milk products as they are inexpensive enough for the developing world; and the implementation of additional antifraud measures during suppliers audits, for example, the supplier must verify that a whistleblower policy has been implemented, and auditors should collect and analyze milk samples to validate suppliers’ claims.
Reference-On Request
