The packet with a foul smell and sour taste submitted by a consumer on Monday. Picture by Eastern Projections

June 28: After the ban on Amul Shakti, another brand of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, Amul Taaza, has come under the scanner of the district administration.

The joint director, health services, of Kamrup (Metropolitan) district today started a probe into the allegation that “inferior” quality Amul Taaza packet milk was being supplied to the city market.

The probe started following a complaint lodged by a consumer this morning.

Confirming the development, district chief medical and health officer . Sonowal said necessary instructions have been issued to the food inspectors to investigate a complaint lodged by one Debasish Sarkar, a resident of Bhaskar Nagar in the Kalapahar area, about “inferior” quality of Amul Taaza being sold in the city markets.

The co-operative federation — the makers of the Amul brand of products — continues to hit the headlines for the wrong reasons since three of its executives were arrested in the city on April 11 on charges of fudging expiry dates on bottles of Amul Shakti.

The consumer also submitted a packet of the product to the authorities to substantiate his complaint.

“We will send the sample of the product for laboratory test by a public analyst to come to a conclusion about the quality of the product and, if required, we will not hesitate to confiscate the stock,” Sonowal added.

The authorities are now trying to pin down the distributor of that particular pack from the batch number mentioned in the label.

It was mentioned on the label that the packet of Amul Taaza belonged to batch number GP-137 and was manufactured on May 22 this year.

“When I opened a pack of Amul Taaza to be consumed this morning, to my utter surprise it was smelling foul and tasted sour,” Sarkar said.

“It was impossible to withstand the nauseating odour of the content, which gives a clear idea about the quality of the product,” he added.

In April, the police raided godowns of an Amul stockist and caught labourers red handed while affixing labels with new expiry dates on the bottles that had already run their lease of life.

Over 10,000 cartons of Amul Shakti were seized in the raids.

It was not only Amul, but also seizures of rotten hilsa fish and packets of noodles imported from Nepal with fudged manufacturing dates recently have raised serious concern about the food safety system in the city.

These incidents have also put a question mark on the functioning of government agencies, which are responsible to check the flow of spurious products to the city markets.

The Guwahati Municipal Corporation and directorate of health services are supposed to keep an eye on the city markets to put unfair trade practices on check.

The GMC had to put on hold its promised drive against poor quality meat in the market because of shortage of vehicles. The corporation, however, insists that it would go ahead with the programme even if it would have to hire vehicles for the purpose.

Senior Amul officials were not available for comments.