Bhubaneswar, Oct. 30: Odisha State Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation (Omfed) finds itself in a soup - not because of the quality of its product, but for claims made on the pouches.

The Omfed has introduced premium quality milk that costs Rs 19 for half a litre. The new product is priced Rs 2 higher than a similar quality of milk it sells.

What has stirred a controversy is that the nutritional value, as detailed on the pouches, of both the products reads identical.

The details on the new milk pouches read that every 100ml of milk has 59 kilocalorie of energy, 3.3gm of protein, 3gm of total fat, 4.81gm of carbohydrates, 155mg of calcium and no sugar.

However when contacted, Omfed officials said the products were different but the printing on the pouches was a "technical glitch".

They said that in addition to what is printed on the pouches, the new product contained 3.5 per cent butter and 9 per cent cheese.

The ingredients have been added according to the guidelines of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.

"We have increased .5 per cent of butter and cheese in the premium milk, but they are not mentioned in the new packets due to some technical error. As we have already printed 20 tonnes of pouches a few days ago, we can incorporate the correct figures only after a fortnight," said general manager (products and central sponsored schemes) Jitendra Ballabh Mohapatra.

The senior Omfed official, however, added that the new premium quality milk contained more minerals and the details would also be displayed on the cover when freshly printed pouches hit the markets after a fortnight.

Fisheries and animal resources development secretary Bishnupada Sethi secretary, too, accepted the fault and termed it as "a minor printing mistake".

"It will be rectified as soon as possible," Sethi said.

Customers, however, are not ready to buy the logic.

A consumer in Pokhariput, Sambit Biswal, said: "When the store owner asked for an extra Rs 2 for the milk packet, I thought of comparing the details printed on both the packets. He also claimed that the new milk would be tasty and contains more protein. However, when I checked I found the ingredients were the same."

Lambodar Samal of Saheed Nagar said: "The Omfed booth owners are now ordering more pouches of the new milk. They in fact are persuading us to buy the new products. I think they should stock all types and it should be up to the consumer to decide."

Justifying the price hike, Mohapatra said that they were paying the farmers more against the amount they supply to the cooperative every 10 days.