The use of unsafe milk and indiscriminate use of aluminium leaf (vark) to decorate sweets has posed a big health challenge in the state during the ongoing festival season.
As per a report prepared by the state’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 41 per cent of the milk samples were found substandard. In the past two months, the FDA has collected 676 milk samples, of which 278 were found unsafe. A significant number of substandard samples were found unsafe for human consumption as many of them were adulterated with edible oil.
The use of aluminium leaf instead of pure silver leaf, which is commonly used for decorating sweets, has also emerged as a major health challenge. In this month, as many as 164 samples were collected across the state to check the quality of silver leaf.
The FDA officials said though the collected samples were still being examined in a laboratory, it was common that many of the collected samples were of aluminium instead of silver. According to experts, consuming aluminium is a serious health hazard. As per the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) standards, the use of aluminium is unsafe for human consumption.
The FDA also laid special emphasis on checking the quality of dry fruits. Over 100 samples have been collected so far for the same.
Punjab’s Commissioner for Food and Drug Administration Dr Abhinav Trikha said following the FSSAI standards, they had launched special campaign to check use of silver paper, milk and quality of dry fruits before beginning of the festival season.
“In August, we launched a week-long special campaign to check the practices of adulteration of milk and every district was assigned to take at least five samples of milk daily,” he said.
