Fake milk factory shut down in India

A factory producing thousands of litres of counterfeit milk a day has been shut down in India by local enforcement agencies.

The unit in the Morena district of Madhya Pradesh was raided this week, resulting in two arrests, and is thought to have been producing 4,00-5,000 litres of milk a day, according to a Times of India report. A third suspect remains at large.

The newspaper said the milk was produced using glucose, refined oils and other noxious components such as liquid detergent and was being distributed in local markets as well as to other companies supplying milk products.

There are numerous instances in which criminals have adulterated milk products - for example by adding components to boost protein content or adulterating the milk of one species with another - but the scale of adulteration in this case is both remarkable and disturbing.

In 2012 a Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) sampling study suggested that as much as two-thirds of milk sold in India may be adulterated, with water, glucose, fat, detergent, paint, urea and other adulterants added to increase volumes.

Dutch researchers, backed by the EU's FoodIntegrity programme - reported earlier this year that incidents involving milk were the third most commonly reported type of food fraud after meat and seafood.