BMC unsure about Flavoured Milk scheme

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is in a fix over the flavoured milk scheme for civic schools. While its own laboratory deemed the milk unfit for human consumption, two state laboratories said bacteria causing food poisoning was not found in milk samples.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is in a fix over the flavoured milk scheme for civic schools. While its own laboratory deemed the milk unfit for human consumption, two state laboratories said bacteria causing food poisoning was not found in milk samples.

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Two contrasting reports over the same milk samples have put a question mark over the resumption of this scheme.

Last month, 43 students from the civic Urdu schools at Malad and Malwani suffered indigestion and vomiting problems after consuming flavoured milk. The BMC sent milk samples to its Malad laboratory for testing. The report that said the milk was unfit for human consumption forced the civic body to discontinue the supply of flavoured milk to civic schools.

The BMC also sent milk samples to government laboratories in Navi Mumbai and Pune for scrutiny.

Civic sources said these reports after testing, declared the milk samples clean and not containing any bacteria causing food poisoning. The Navi Mumbai government laboratory also gave an identical report last week. The civic officials planned to restart the flavoured milk scheme after the Diwali vacations.

A civic official, on condition of anonymity, said the samples sent to their laboratory in Malad were from opened tetra packs containing milk that had been consumed by students, which might have led to it getting spoilt.

However, the samples sent to Pune and Navi Mumbai laboratories were from sealed tetra packs, the official said.