Ban Heritage Milk: YSRCP

Hyderabad, April 8, 2013: YSR Congress has demanded the State Government to ban Heritage milk as it contains the synthetic compound formalin which leads to cancer and other intestine disorders; the State should also order a full-fledged inquiry into the processing of the milk by the company.

“Kerala Government has already banned the product and has notified it through a gazette In August 2012 stating that formalin is added as preservative and it is injurious to health. We want the State to follow suit and ban the Heritage milk immediately,” party spokesperson Jupudi Prabhakar Rao told reporters here on Monday.

Heritage Foods, owned by TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu and his family members, has been widely using formalin as a preservative in the milk which causes cancer, intestine disorders and also affects liver. Kerala Government banned the products of Heritage Foods which are supplied under the brand name Heritage Paedmanabha in that state, he said and circulated copies of the Gazette.

Formalin or formaldehyde was found in excess of permissible limits in all the three varieties pasteurised, homogenised and standardised milk and the Commissioner of Food Safety has issued the order banning the product.

However, the State Government did not take the incident into cognizance.

Three persons were charred to death in the accident at Heritage Foods plant in Visakhspatnam district on Sunday. Though the incident occurred due to lack of safety measure, the State was unmoved, he said.

Even when a group of workers and their family members were on their way to question Chandrababu Naidu, who is on padayatra in the neighboring East Godavari district, the government misused police and other official machinery to foil their bid to reach the TDP leader.

“Why is the State Government shielding Chandrababu Naidu and not allowing the concerned department’s to function on their own. If the two parties have ganged-up for political reasons, that is a different issue, but why should the innocent people suffer?” he asked.

On the Heritage issue, he said: the Kerala government has referred the Central Act of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the State should take a serious note of it and ban Heritage Milk in the state and take stringent action besides ordering an inquiry into the processing and use of other ingredients.

“We will also raise this matter in the Assembly and Council as well as it concerns the health of general public that is unaware of the repercussions and are silently suffering for no fault of theirs,” he said.

Even the website Centre for Science and Environment clearly mentions of the harmful ingredients being used in milk that is being supplied various business houses. One of the prominent points the website has mentioned is that formalin is being used much beyond the permissible limits, he said.

The Visakhapatnam incident should also be taken up seriously as it concerns the working conditions of the employees. All the persons who were charred to death were working on contract basis. A detailed investigation is needed to assess the reasons for the accident and if the unit is equipped with preventive mechanism.

We demand that the law should take its own course in the accident case at Heritage Foods, Visakhapatnam plant and an inquiry should be ordered whether proper safety norms were followed or not by the plant, he said.