Maharashtra FDA Plans Digital System for End-to-End Milk Traceability to Curb Adulteration
To address recurring milk adulteration across Maharashtra, the State Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is planning a comprehensive digitisation project to introduce end-to-end traceability of milk by linking collection figures directly with animal livestock data.
What Happened
Maharashtra FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe announced that the authority is working on a digital portal to track milk from the animal of origin to collection centres. The system aims to monitor real milk output by integrating dairy collection metrics with livestock records maintained under the central government’s National Digital Livestock Mission (NDLM).
Under the proposed mechanism, dairies and milk collection centres will be mandated to submit real-time figures regarding accepted and rejected milk onto an FDA-managed portal. The FDA will cross-reference this information at the back-end against the NDLM database, which records tagged livestock and estimated milk yields uploaded by farmers, to identify discrepancies indicating adulteration.
Key Highlights
- Livestock Integration: The system will utilise India’s animal tagging framework and NDLM database to map individual milch animals to reported production figures.
- FDA Monitoring Portal: A dedicated portal developed and maintained by the FDA will collect real-time data from collection units; data matching will occur privately at the back-end.
- Project Status: The initiative is in its early stages. A project report is expected in a few months, following which the software will undergo development and testing before rollout.
- Recent Enforcement Steps: The FDA has recently increased testing capacity, conducted inspections on eateries and caterers, placed a one-year ban on analogue paneer, and prohibited junk food sales in and around schools.
- Supply Chain Requirements: To prevent milk spoilage leading to adulteration, the FDA previously ordered dairies to collect milk before 8 a.m. and advocated for twice-daily collections along with chilling within two hours at temperatures under 4°C.
Why This Matters
According to the FDA Commissioner, adulteration frequently begins when milk exceeds a two-hour window without chilling, causing acidity to rise and leading suppliers to use neutralisers, water, or other additives to artificially adjust quantity and fat content. Tracing collection figures directly to the registered output of tagged animals is intended to close these systemic gaps and prevent unverified milk volumes from entering the supply chain.
What to Watch Next
The FDA is scheduled to complete and submit the project report for the digitisation system within a few months. Following submission, the portal will be developed, tested, and subsequently deployed across collection centres and dairies in Maharashtra.
Frequently Asked Questions
How will the FDA trace milk to individual animals?
The FDA plans to link collection centre data with the central government’s National Digital Livestock Mission (NDLM) database, which contains records of tagged milch animals and average milk output uploaded by farmers.
Will dairies have access to the backend livestock comparison data?
No. According to the FDA Commissioner, the matched backend database will be accessible only to the FDA to monitor and detect adulteration patterns, and will not be available to front-end users or dairies.
What storage conditions are required to prevent milk degradation?
Milk must be chilled below 4°C within two hours of milking to prevent acidity from increasing, removing the operational pretext for using chemical neutralisers or other additives.
Source: Based on an interview reported by The Hindu.