Noida food-safety officials intensify paneer and khoya inspections

Inspection teams from the Food Safety and Drug Administration collected samples at two locations in Noida. They took paneer and khoya from a commercial dairy establishment in Sector 45 and obtained another paneer sample from a retailer at Zodiac Amrapali Market in Sector 120.

The authorities placed all seized samples in official custody before sending them to accredited government public-health laboratories. The laboratories are examining the products for chemical compliance, including fat levels, solids-not-fat ratios and the presence of foreign vegetable fats or synthetic adulterants.

Laboratory reports for these batches had not been issued at the time of the inspections. The authorities said that no official violation had yet been recorded in relation to the samples collected in this operation.

Sarvesh Mishra, assistant commissioner for food at the FSDA in Gautam Budh Nagar, said the expanded sampling campaign was intended to protect consumers and maintain the availability of pure milk and dairy products across the urban district.

If the laboratory findings show that the products do not meet purity requirements, the department said it would pursue legal and penal measures under the Food Safety and Standards Act. The stated enforcement position applies after the relevant test results are available.

The Noida inspections are taking place alongside wider monitoring in Uttar Pradesh. State regulators have formed specialised task forces to target the production and sale of synthetic dairy substitutes.

Operations in nearby Ghaziabad and Mathura have led to the seizure and destruction of tonnes of counterfeit dairy products, according to the authorities. Those products were described as having been made with industrial chemicals, palmolein oil and other non-dairy adulterants intended to resemble genuine milk solids.