A day after a fake Nandini ghee racket was unearthed in Mysuru, the Mysuru District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Societies’ Union Limited (MYMUL) has decided to set up a vigilance squad to counter the distribution of fake dairy products misusing the Nandini brand name.

MYMUL President P.M. Prasanna told reporters in Mysuru on Friday their vigilance team, which will comprise chemists and other food experts, will visit different Nandini milk parlours and agencies to check for the purity and genuineness of the products they are selling under the brand name.

Though such a vigilance squad has to be set up by Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), the apex body of dairy co-operatives in the State, MYMUL will deploy the vigilance squad in areas falling under its purview.

The members of the squad will also seize products at random and have them checked at the laboratory.

Mr. Prasanna said MYMUL representatives had met the Superintendent of Mysuru district police R. Chetan to conduct a detailed probe by senior officials into the racket, which was unearthed on Thursday after activists stormed a godown at Hosahundi on the outskirts of Mysuru.

A FIR has been registered against four persons, he said while hoping that the police investigation will help bring out not only all the culprits involved in the crime, but also its marketing network.

Mr. Prasanna said the fake packaging material recovered from the godown on Thursday had copied all the contents of Nandini packaging material including even the taxation numbers.

It may be mentioned here that large quantities of palm oil, vegetable cooking oil, colouring and flavouring agents, besides packaging material in the name of Nandini, which is the brand name of KMF’s dairy products, had been seized by food safety officers from the godown on Thursday.

MYMUL, in a statement, has claimed that about 3 to 4 tonnes of pure ghee had also been recovered along with 5 to 6 tonnes of adulterated ghee.

P.M. Prasad, Mysuru’s designated officer for Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), said the samples of the seized material will be sent to the laboratories for testing.

MYMUL officials also said that their directors and officials rushed to the godown after they were alerted by the members of a local human rights organisation, which had received a tip-off about the racket.

Source : The Hindu 17th Dec 2021