Recently, milk samples from packed milk companies were sent to a laboratory in Germany by the Lahore High Court in response to a petitioner challenging the purity of milk.
The laboratory declared the milk samples as fit for human consumption although they contained nearly 2 mg of formalin/formaldehyde per litre of milk. The Court accepted the test report of German laboratory although formalin is not a constituent of milk and is a carcinogenic agent used as a bactericide in preservation of carcasses of dead persons and animals.
A report published in The New York Times under the title Food Preservative are Fatal says that the Chief Milk Inspector Grady experimented on the feeding of formalin added milk and pure milk to cats. While the formalin doctored milk killed the cats in 2 to 3 weeks while those fed on pure milk without formalin grew fat and hearty.
We are at the same stage as was USA a century ago when milk, in the absence of chillers, was preserved by adding formalin. This is a point to be pondered over in the interest of public health.
MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
