Not so long ago, Supreme Court asked the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF), University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore (UVAS) and the Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) to conduct an analysis of all packaged milk available in Punjab. This was done following a petition against the government of Punjab for not banning unhealthy milk products.
The Supreme Court eventually made a decision based on the reports submitted by these evaluation authorities. However, the public still did not receive the detailed reports on which milk products were banned and which ones passed the testing phase.
Read More: Here’s How You Can Identify Impure Milk in Pakistan
PCSIR’s report has now been released to the public as well and the complete list of all companies and their milk products, which are healthy for consumption, are now in the public domain.
This report states that only six UHT (Ultra Heat Treatment) or pasteurised milk brands out the tested sixteen, are fit for consumption.
PCSIR conducted analysis of total 16 brands based on following categories:
Note: UHT is heat treated milk which preservatives, comes in “cardboard” cartons and can be kept at room temperature for long amounts of time, while pasteurised milk needs to be refrigerated and expires after a couple of days.
The milk brands which passed the testing are six in total. 5 of them belong to the UHT category while only one belongs to the more natural pasteurised category.
The other tested brands which failed to pass the evaluation and were deemed dangerous to the health are listed below. One belongs to the UHT packaged milk category while the rest belong to the pasteurised milk category.
All of the above failed in the microbiological parameters.
The following 27 parameters were considered by the PCSIR when testing the samples:
Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) has the authority to monitor the quality of products in the Compulsory Certification Mark Scheme.
The Packaged Liquid Milk was not included in the mandatory list of PSQCA. However, after the uproar in the print and electronic media and the Supreme Court’s decision regarding unhealthy milk, Packaged Liquid Milk PSS: 5344-2016 has now been included in the mandatory list of PSQCA.
Following the inclusion of milk in the quality control list, PSQCA will be responsible to control and monitor the quality of packaged liquid milk. Therefore, PSQCA has begun working with milk manufacturers in the Certification Marks license regime.
Let’s hope that the authorities can do a better job pulling these milk brands out of the market until they refine and improve their standards and that such quality is ensured and it doesn’t become a one-time instance with no follow-up.