Breast milk bottles and sachets worth ₹7.87 lakh seized from distributor in Arumbakkam

Tamil Nadu Food Safety Department raids distributor selling pasteurised breast milk, violating FSSAI advisory, seizing products worth ₹7.87 lakh.

With Tamil Nadu’s Food Safety Department monitoring the sale of breast milk across the State, the Chennai team on Monday raided a pharmaceutical distributor in Arumbakkam and found 380 bottles of breast milk (standardised and pasteurised) and 900 sachets of breast milk in powdered form.

A team, led by P. Satheesh Kumar, Designated Officer, Food Safety Department, Chennai, raided R.K. Pharma Distributors, a drug distribution centre in Arumbakkam. The raid followed last week’s seizure of breast milk bottles from an outlet in Madhavaram.

“The firm has been functioning here for more than two years. The supply was from a Karnataka-based company. They are the main distributor in Chennai and have been supplying human milk products to retailers and hospitals. We obtained the distribution list. We found that the milk bottles were supplied to a private hospital on Spur Tank Road in Chetpet, and we recovered 51 bottles from the hospital. We are in the process of checking the list,” Dr. Satheesh Kumar said.

He said the 50-ml bottles were sold for either ₹900 and ₹1,239, depending on the composition. Two types of sachets that were sold for ₹164 and ₹318 were also recovered. Overall, bottles and sachets worth ₹7.87 lakh were seized, he added.

While the breast milk that was seized from a retail outlet in Madhavaram was sourced from mothers, the products seized from the distributor were pasteurised and standardised with a shelf life of one year, he said. “We have lifted samples and have sent them for laboratory analysis. This being a drug distributor centre, we have sealed the room that contained the freezer boxes in which the milk was stored. We will be seeking their explanation,” he added.

Officers said R.K. Pharma was a distributor not only for pasteurised mother’s milk but also all kinds of drugs and cosmetics. As per the composition information printed on the “human milk powder” sachet, each 15.5 g of powder contained 100% of human milk and human milk solids (powder of nari ksheera). It was an “Ayurvedic Proprietary Medicine-Health Promoter”.

On May 24, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) issued an advisory on unauthorised commercialisation of human milk and its products. It noted that the FSSAI had not permitted processing and/or selling of human milk under the Food Safety and Standards Act, and advised that all activities related to commercialisation of human milk and its products be stopped immediately. Any violation may result in initiation of action against the food business operators (FBO). State and Central licencing authorities were told to ensure that no licence/registration was granted to FBOs involved in the processing or selling of “mother’s milk/human milk”, it said.