Data to Ruminate On: Majority of Delhi-NCR Consumers Believe Milk They Buy Is Not Pure, Says Survey

A total of 21% of nearly 45,000 respondents in a survey in Delhi-NCR said they believe the milk they buy “has some water, fat, and milk powder”.

The study was carried out by community social media platform LocalCircles.

The survey received over 45,000 responses from household consumers located across all districts of Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, and Faridabad. 63% respondents were men while 37% were women. Among them, 21% believe the milk bought by them “has some water, fat and milk powder”, the agency said.

“Another 21% of the respondents believe that the milk procured by them has adulterants and 17% believe the milk bought by them is being diluted with water,” the survey said.

With some of the “major” milk manufacturers having their production units in different states, the process of milk aggregation via co-operatives leads to long-distance travel for the product to reach the consumers, LocalCircles said.

“Some of the respondents also believe that the long-distance travel somewhat affects the purity and quality of milk,” the study said.

73% of those surveyed said they buy milk in pouches. Of the 9,189 respondents to a question on this, 38% shared that they get branded milk delivered at home in pouches while 35% purchase branded milk from milk booths/ outlets or retail stores.

23% of households surveyed continue to buy loose milk or what is delivered by their regular milkman at their doorstep. 8% shared that they are buying branded milk which is sourced directly from the farms, while another 8% said they are buying milk in tetra packs.

A national study by FSSAI on milk in October 2019 listed impure water, urea, starch, glucose, formalin, hydrogen peroxide and detergents as some of the adulterants. The presence of Aflatoxin M1 was also studied in this survey and 38 out of the 262 samples in Delhi were found to carry the same.

Aflatoxins are toxins produced by certain fungi which are generally found in agricultural crops like maize, peanut, cotton seeds and are carcinogenic in nature.

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