A new study by food safety officials in India found that a high percentage of milk in the country is either watered down or adulterated with dangerous additives, according to Reuters.
The study was conducted this month by the food safety and standards authority of India. The results do not bode will for milk drinkers. Tests found that milk was adulterated with “skimmed milk powder, and glucose, or more shockingly hydrogen peroxide, urea and detergent,” according to the wire report.
Nearly 70 percent of the more than 1,500 samples taken across India were contaminated or otherwise diluted, according to the report.
“Consumption of milk with detergent may cause health hazards and indicates lack of hygiene and sanitation in the milk handling,” the regulator said in a report, according to the wire.
“Addition of water not only reduces the nutritional value of milk but contaminated water may also pose health risks.”
A 2008 milk scandal, driven by economic adulteration, in China sickened at least 300,000 and killed six infants.