Even as the Food and Drugs Control Administration, Gujarat, has pulled up Amul for misrepresenting production facts of milk and butter, a blame game has begun with the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Ltd (Amul Dairy) and Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation holding each other responsible for misrepresentation of packaging dates of milk and butter.
On January 25, FDCA officials had carried out inspections at the Amul Dairy facility in Anand, where butter packets containing a manufacturing date of March 2005 were found.
Amul raids open a can of worms
Besides, milk packets, which were being packed on January 25, bore the packaging date of January 26. While Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Ltd is the apex milk co-operatives of Anand district, which also runs the milk products plant at Anand, GCMMF markets the Amul brand of products across the country.
KDCMPL chairman Ramsinh Parmar, puting the blame solely on GCMMF, said, "Packaging and marketing of Amul products is the duty of GCMMF. I believe the federation is answerable to questions on the misprint in the dates of packaging of milk and butter, which were detected earlier in the week."
A spokesperson for GCMMF said on Friday that the batch of butter, which was seized by the FDCA on January 25 at the Amul Dairy plant at Anand, was yet to be approved by the quality control department of GCMMF, which would have stopped it from going into the market.
The spokesperson said Amul Dairy is one of the 12 district dairies under the federation and since the raid was carried out at the Anand dairy, which has its own chairman and managing director, it is responsible for the misrepresentation of facts.
Although GCMMF managing director B M Vyas did not blame Amul dairy at Anand directly, he hinted at 'deliberate attempts' being possibly made to malign the brand name Amul.
Without elaborating, Vyas said Amul has been giving tough competition, not only to national brands, but multinational companies as well.
He said, "Deliberate attempts might have been made to malign the brand, because Amul has been giving tough competition even to multinational companies."
The famous Anand milk co-operative model, that has been replicated not just across the country, but in several other countries as well, traces its origins to Kheda district.
The milk co-operative union at Anand has a history of over 50 years. GCMMF chairman V Kurien, while commenting on the controversy, said that this will not affect the brand.
What they said
The Amul brand will not be affected at all because of the developments. As many as 50 years of my work in creating a brand like Amul cannot go in vain in this manner
V Kurien, chairman, GCMMF
To some extent the Amul brandname has been tarnished. Amul is a company of international repute, but the least consumers expect is that they must get correct information
S P Adeshara, commissioner, FDCA
Deliberate attempts might have been made to malign the brand, because Amul has been giving a tough competition to even multinational companies
B M Vyas, managing director, GCMMF