LUCKNOW Food items may look like paneer, taste like khoya and even resemble ghee — but if these are made largely from non-dairy ingredients and sold as conventional milk products, it could now land manufacturers, suppliers and retailers in serious trouble in Uttar Pradesh.
The drive has acquired greater significance ahead of the festive season, when demand for paneer, khoya, chhena, cream and ghee traditionally surges. The state government has now specifically prohibited the manufacture, storage and sale of dairy analogue products (imitation foods) made using non-milk ingredients. The government order does not ban genuine paneer, khoya, ghee, chhena or cream. FSDA commissioner Roshan Jacob clarified that the action is directed specifically at dairy analogues —products designed to imitate conventional dairy products but made substantially from non-dairy ingredients.
The order was issued on August 15 under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. The scale of the ongoing operation was evident on August 14, when the Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) deployed 24 special enforcement teams for surprise inspections at dairy and dairy product manufacturing units in Ghaziabad, Mathura and Saharanpur. Officials destroyed 7,686 kg of food material on the spot, valued at nearly ₹ 10 lakh, after finding it allegedly unfit for consumption or manufactured/stored in unsafe and unhygienic conditions. Another 2,131 kg of food material and suspected adulterants, worth around ₹ 4.75 lakh, was seized. In all, 9,817 kg of food material and suspected adulterants were seized or destroyed during the single-day operation.
On Monday too, there was action in Bareli, Deoria and Shahjahanpur.
