Rampant adulteration of milk poses a major threat to India’s nutritional needs, researchers and experts said on Saturday.

A week ahead of World Milk Day June 1, the Indian Dietetic Association (IDA) in collaboration with Tetra Pak organised a national awareness seminar at the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here.

Experts conducting research on milk adulteration and nutrition converged to discuss “a crisis like situation” brewing from rampant adulteration and a need for a strong policy framework for the same.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who was the chief guest at the event, said: “We have a huge challenge before us. We need more laboratories to test milk. India being largely a vegetarian society relies on milk rather than meat for its nutritional needs.”

Anuja Agarwala, president IDA, spoke about instances of adulteration and contamination of milk. “Consumers are paranoid about the contamination of other food products but continue to ignore milk probably because of the sanctity attached to it.”.

V.K. Batish, head of the dairy microbiology division of National Diary Research Institute, Karnal, emphasised the need for enhancing shelf life of milk.

“Milk preservation is the key to driving increased milk consumption today. Owing to lack of scientific knowledge, thousands of litres of milk is wasted,” Batish said.

“Innovative ways of ensuring longer shelf life” was required, he said.