THE Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has issued a warning that fresh milk available in the market is heavily contaminated with most harmful and resilient bacteria which do not get eliminated even by boiling the milk (Jan 16).

The association has therefore recommended using packed milk that is pasteurised under ultra-high temperatures (UHT). We should be grateful to the association for this public health warning. Milk is pretty heavily consumed in our society and therefore the warning should be taken seriously.

However, advocating consumption of packed milk is something that needs to be looked into closely. The packed milk industry buys milk from buffalo farmers and processes it before packaging. It achieves ultra-high temperatures by subjecting milk to increased pressures which takes milk to about 130 degree Celsius.

But this is exactly what every household does for preparing meat and gram (daal) dishes – by cooking them in pressure cookers where the inside temperature rises to over 120 degree Celcius. The PMA may like to consider checking if boiling milk in pressure cookers and for how long would serve to eliminate the most resilient bacteria.

If it does, consumers would easily save Rs70 to 80 per litre of milk, and the buffalo farmers would be saved from losing a vast market.

A. H. Nayyar

Islamabad

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2020