Ranchi homemaker Shalini Mishra has been serving her family khoya and paneer for breakfast, lunch and dinner for days. Asked why, Mishra said she was recycling curdled milk.

A Bihar State Milk Co-operative Federation Ltd offering, which enjoys a major retail shelf space in the branded milk category in Jharkhand, Sudha sells between 70,000 litres and 80,000 litres a day in Ranchi itself. But, now, Sudha is in trouble in the capital for the past week.

Scores of Sudha customers, faced with milk curdling up as soon as it is put to boil, protested before milk counters at Kokar, Ratu Road and other places on Thursday morning.

"Two days ago, I bought milk from Reliance Fresh. But when I boiled it, it curdled and became slightly greenish. So, I dried it to khoya. Next day, I bought milk from the authorised Sudha outlet in Kokar but met with the same results. So, I made paneer," Kokar-based homemaker Mishra said.

She said when she complained at the authorised outlet, the man at the counter said he couldn't do anything.

"Last night (Wednesday) I bought a one-litre packet and kept it in the fridge. This morning (Thursday) when my wife boiled it to prepare tea, it curdled after a few minutes on the gas," Kameshwar Sahu, a businessman at Ratu Road, said.

"Sudha milk is curdling up as soon as it starts to boil. It's been happening since the past three-four days. I'm skipping my morning milk tea," Sumit Ranjan, a sales representative at Lalpur, said. "And, it's not happening in one locality."

To verify it, this correspondent purchased Sudha milk pouches from HB Road Reliance Fresh and Sudha counters at HB Road and Lalpur, respectively, within the shelf life of five days from the day of packaging. Both curdled under heat.

Contacted, Sudha chief executive (CEO) of Sudha (Ranchi dairy) M.N. Dwivedi first played down the problem. When this correspondent cited his personal experience, Dwivedi blamed the weather. "It's because of excessive heat and sudden change in temperatures," Dwivedi claimed, but did not specify cold storage solutions.

"There may have been a few complaints from a few pockets. In case of complaints, I've directed outlets to give customers 100 per cent replacement," he said. But, what if the replacement curdles too?

Is blaming summer for milk curdling fair? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com