The Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection has found adulterated and fake milk being made in Faridpur upazila, Pabna, Desh Rupantor reports. In a joint drive with the upazila administration on Saturday (10 October), two businesses were fined a total of Tk 100,000, one was temporarily sealed and one person was jailed for 15 days.
To catch the offenders in the act, officials began watching from 3pm under cover of a free medical and health-awareness camp, and moved in once milk-making began after dusk. At Shamim Hossain's business in Purendarpur Uttarpara they found hydrogen peroxide being added to milk and recovered 100 grams of it; the owner was fined Tk 50,000 under Section 42 of the Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009.
At Swapno Dairy Farm, fake milk was being made with jelly and cooking oil; officials found jelly, soybean oil and a blending machine. The farm was fined Tk 50,000, one person was jailed for 15 days and the premises were temporarily sealed. Two drums of jelly and one of palm oil were destroyed.
The directorate said adding unapproved substances such as hydrogen peroxide and jelly to milk is a serious public health threat, particularly for children, older people and the chronically ill. Depending on the substance and amount, it can cause vomiting, diarrhoea and inflammation of the stomach and gut, and long-term unsafe food can harm children's nutrition.
It advised consumers to buy milk from trusted, approved sources and not to drink milk with an unusual colour, smell or thickness, while noting that boiling or looking at milk cannot detect or remove every chemical adulterant. Information on food adulteration can be reported to the national consumer complaint hotline, 16121.
Photo: Syed Sajidul Islam / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); a dairy farm in Sirajganj, for illustration
Source: Desh Rupantor
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