India Revises Milk and Milk Products Food Safety Standards

On August 2, 2017, India FSSAI released an announcement detailing the updated food safety standard of milk and milk products, which have been effective since the date of release.

Previously, some requirements for milk varied from region to region, while this revised standard makes them uniform for the whole country. For example, for cow milk, previously the highest standard for milk fat was set for Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh at 4 % and the lowest in Mizoram and Orissa at 3 %, but it has now been made the same for the entire country and is set at 3.2 %. “Today we don't require the variation across states. That's why the new standards are uniform for the country now.” Pawan Agarwal, the director of FSSAI said. He also mentioned that the new standards will make sale of milk easier for cow milk sellers.

Apart from milk fat, some other indexes are adjusted as well. Minimum Milk Solids not-Fat (SNF) now ranges between 6% and 9% for toned and full cream milk from buffalo, cow, goat or sheep. And standards for camel milk have also been newly added.

This updated regulation will standardize outdated benchmarks for determining adulteration. “Why should someone be persecuted if his or her cow or buffalo is producing milk less in fat content than the permissible limit? We have hybrid cattle these days and the quality of milk is changing naturally across the country, which is why we needed to revisit old standards,” said Pawan Agarwal. With the change in environmental conditions, quality of fodder, water that cattle consume, it is high time for India to update the standard for milk and milk products.