Gurgaon, March 22, 2025: The food safety department raided multiple dairy shops in Arjun Nagar on Wednesday, collecting samples of milk products, including cottage cheese and curd, for testing.
The action was prompted by a tip-off from residents who claimed that the shops had been selling adulterated cottage cheese.
The samples collected by the food officials were sent to the FSSAI laboratory in Karnal for investigation into their quality.
“We collected cottage cheese samples from Ak Paneer Bhandar, Sahid Paneer and Haryana Paneer Bhandar,” said the district’s food and safety officer Dr Ramesh Chauhan.
“From Gauri Dairy, both cottage cheese and curd samples were collected. All seized samples were sent to the FSSAI laboratory in Karnal for testing. Around 50kg of cottage cheese was collected from Gauri Dairy,” he said, adding that all the collected samples were emanating a foul smell.
To make cottage cheese, milk must have 50% fat. If it is produced out of milk with fat less than this, it must be packaged and sold as ‘low-fat’. Moreover, cottage cheese cannot be made from milk powder as that has no fat content.
However, shops make cottage cheese with relatively cheaper milk or milk powder, and to compensate for the fat, add unhealthy products such as palm oil.
“Cottage cheese made through this process is harmful and cannot be considered natural,” Chauhan said.
The laboratory will release the test results after 14 days and as per procedure, the manufacturing company whose samples are found substandard will be served a notice according to the reports published in timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
“Those found selling adulterated items will be asked if they are satisfied with the results. If they are, they will be asked to respond with reasons for their samples failing the test,” Chauhan said.
In case they are not satisfied with the results, they can appeal for further testing of the sample in a central govt lab. If the samples fail the central govt lab’s test too, a penalty by the ADM court will be imposed on the manufacturer, the official added.
