The PFA (Prevention of Food Adulteration Act) has laid down certain standards for the various products of milk available in the market. It is an act to make the provision for the prevention of adulteration of food.
Objectives of PFA:
i. To protect the public from poisonous and harmful foods
ii. To prevent the sale of substandard foods.
iii. To protect the interests of the consumers by eliminating fraudulent practices.
Now, let us discuss that there should be certain standards for various products of milk, so that if there is any adulteration in product, we will take any reaction.
1. Cream:
Excluding sterilised cream means the product of cow or buffalo milk or of a combination thereof which contains not less than 25.0 % milk fat.
2. Butter:
The butter generally used for consumption is of two types such as:
(i) Table Butter – This type of butter is also known as creamy butter. The product is prepared exclusively from milk, cream or curd of cow or buffalo or a combination thereof with or without the addition of salt and coloured with anatto and should contain not less than 80% of milk fat and not more than 3% salt and 1.5% curd. No preservative is permissible in table butter. Diacetyl may be added for flavour but should not exceed 4 parts per million.
(ii) Desi Butter It is also known as cooking butter, and should not contain less than 76 % of milk fat and not more than 20% moisture.
3. Khoa:
It is a product made from cow, buffalo or their mixed milk, it should contain not less than 20% fat in the finished product.
4. Malai:
This product is rich in butter fat prepared by boiling and cooling cow or buffalo milk or a combination thereof. It should contain not less than 25% milk fat.
5. Chenna or Paneer:
The product is obtained from the cow or buffalo milk or of a combination thereof by precipitation with sour milk, lactic acid or citric acid. It should not contain more than 70% moisture, and the milk fat content should not be less than 50% of the dry matter.
6. Skimmed Milk Chenna or Paneer:
The product is obtained from the cow or buffalo skimmed milk by precipitation with sour milk, lactic acid or citric acid. It should not contain more than 70% moisture. The milk fat content of the product should not exceed 13% of the dry matter.
7. Cheese:
Hard cheese should contain not more than 43% moisture and not less than 42% milk of the dry matter. It may contain 0.1 % of ascorbic acid or its sodium, potassium or calcium salts, sorbic acid, or 0.1% of niacin.
8. Ice-Cream, Kulfi and Chocolate Ice-Cream:
The various frozen products of milk, that are available are obtained from cow or buffalo milk or a combination thereof or from cream, with or without the addition of sugarcane, eggs, fruits, fruit juices, preserved fruits, nuts, chocolates, edible flavours, permitted food colours. The product should contain not less than 10% milk fat, 3.5% protein and 36% total solids.
In the case of fruit or nut ice-cream, the milk fat should not be less than 8%. It may contain permitted stabilisers and emulsifiers not exceeding 0.5% by weight. Starch may be added to the maximum extent of 5% under a declaration on the label.
9. Milk Powder:
Milk powder is the product obtained from cow or buffalo milk or a combination thereof by removal of water. Milk powder should contain not more than 5% moisture and not less than 26% milk fat.
It may contain calcium chloride, citric acid and sodium citrate, sodium salts or orthophosphoric acid and polyphosphoric acid not exceeding 0.3% by weight of the finished product, and 0.01% of Butylated Hydroxy Anisole (BHA) by weight of the finished product. Skimmed milk powder should not contain more than 1.5% milk fat and moisture should not exceed 5%. Partly skimmed milk powder should not contain more than 5% moisture and fat content of the product should be between 1.6 and 24.0%.
10. Condensed Milk:
The product obtained from cow or buffalo milk or a combination thereof by partial removal of water. It may contain added calcium chloride, citric acid and sodium citrate, sodium salts of orthophosphoric acid and polyphosphoric acid not exceeding 0.3% by weight of the finished product. Condensed milk unsweetened should contain not less than 8% milk fat and milk solids not less than 26%. Condensed milk sweetened should contain not less than 9% milk fat, not less than 31% total milk solids and not less than 40% cane sugar.