Food Safety Authority Says Claims About A2 Milk Are Misleading, Withdraws Advisory Within Days

It is curious that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India should withdraw its advisory of Aug. 21 prohibiting the sale of milk and milk products on the basis of A1 and A2-type differentiation. An about turn happened just five days later for "further consultation and engagement with stakeholders."

In its first advisory, the FSSAI reminded food businesses that the 2006 Act governing them does not allow A2 claims on milk products; they are misleading and a violation. The regulations on food standards and food additives of 2011 also do not recognise differentiation of milk as A1 and A2 type, it said. E-commerce businesses were advised to immediately withdraw such claims from their website. The others were given six months to exhaust their printed labels making such claims. 

If claims are misleading or violate a law, how can an agency vested with implementation of the law hold its enforcement in abeyance? 

It is likely that the FSSAI stepped on sensitive ideological toes by issuing the first advisory. There is a sizable section of people and a large concentration of them in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party who believe that indigenous cattle breeds are exceptional.

Radha Mohan Singh, as agriculture minister in the Modi government's first term, had issued a poster claiming that cow milk of indigenous breeds was better for health. These breeds were known for A2-type milk, the poster said. This type of milk is beneficial for the heart, blood circulation and for those suffering from diabetes or neurological disorders, it claimed. The former minister asserted that the government he was part of was for the first time bringing A2 milk to people, and Odisha and Karnataka had been given Rs 2 crore each for marketing it. 

Cow milk contains 3.4% protein, of which about 30–35% is beta-casein, says Narayan Hegde, a dairy veteran with more than four decades of engagement in senior management with Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation, now called BAIF Development Research Centre.

The Pune-based BAIF was started in the 1970s by Mahatma Gandhi's disciple, Manibhai Desai, to pull small farmers out of poverty via milk production. These farmers did not have enough land to gain from Green Revolution technologies. Since the cattle they possessed were non-descript indigenous breeds with low milk yields, BAIF tried to improve the genetic stock by crossbreeding the animals with high-yielding indigenous cattle or exotic ones like Jersey and Holstein Friesian. It pioneered the delivery of frozen semen of high-yielding cattle in canisters to rural areas for artificial insemination. 

A1 and A2 are common genetic variants of beta-casein. The 67th position on the beta-casein gene is a mutation point that can lead to two variants, A1 and A2. 

The A2 variant is said to produce more digestible milk and is claimed not to have adverse health consequences associated with A1 type milk. In a paper published in the Indian Journal of Animal Sciences in July 2019, Hegde gave a history of the controversy regarding A1 milk, leading to the New Zealand Food Safety Authority engaging the European Food Safety Authority in 2008 to conduct a scientific review about its safety. In 2009, the EFSA said no cause-and-effect relationship could be established between A1 type milk and various adverse health outcomes, he wrote. 

According to Hegde, doubts about the safety of A1-type milk were first raised by two researchers in the 1990s, who said the protein fragments that the milk released during digestion could suppress certain immune functions and induce Type 1 diabetes. In subsequent years, other researchers indicated A1-type milk for coronary heart disease, sudden infant death syndrome and autism.

A book published in 2008 called Devil in the Milk linked A1 type milk with Type 1 diabetes and drove consumers to A2 type milk in New Zealand and Australia. It cited more than 100 scientific papers to assert that A1-type milk was harmful. Owing to the scare that the studies and the book generated, the New Zealand authorities approached the EFSA, Hedge wrote.

The EFSA said the presence of molecules indicated for harming health after intake of milk or casein was not established in any of the human studies. There was no clear evidence linking the molecules and the SIDS. The data did not support the link between casein-derived protein fragments and autism in those with leaky gut syndrome. The EFSA did not make any cautionary recommendation, and its report was accepted by the food safety authorities of New Zealand, Australia and other countries, Hegde wrote. 

After 2009, there were more studies but, according to Hegde, most of them were sponsored by a New Zealand company promoting A2 milk. 

The first review paper on A1 and A2 milk in India was published in 2009, according to Hegde. The researchers screened 618 cattle belonging to 15 breeds. They found that 98% of them were A2 types. All eight breeds of buffaloes were also A2 types. 

Among the exotic breeds, 22% of Holstein-Friesian bulls had inherited A1 genes from their parents, 45% were A1A2 and 33% had A2A2 genes. In the Jersey breed, 60% of the bulls had A1A2 genes and 37.5% A2A2 genes. Among crossbred bulls, only 1% had A1A1 genes, while about 50% had A2A2 genes and 39% of the bulls were A1A2. 

Hegde says people in India have been drinking crossbred cow milk for over 50 years without any adverse effects. Those in Europe and the US have been drinking it for centuries without being harmed. So it is necessary to inform the public about the safety of crossbred milk so that they are not anxious and fall for the false claims of unscrupulous milk and milk product sellers. The redeeming aspect about India is that half of the milk produced is that of buffaloes, which is healthier than cow milk if the extra fat content is removed. 

The withdrawal of the advisory has another parallel. In July, the Ministry of Ayush issued a notification omitting a rule under the Drugs and Cosmetic Rules, 1945, that required advertisements for ayurveda, unani, siddha and homoeopathic products to be vetted by Ayush licensing authorities before they were published. 

The rule had been inserted in 2018 at the instance of a parliamentary committee to curb misleading advertisements regarding Ayush products. In August last year, the ministry issued an advisory telling state licensing authorities and drug controllers not to take action under the rule, as its advisory board had recommended withdrawal of the rule. The Supreme Court stayed the July notification on Monday as it went against its earlier order.

The FSSAI withdrew its advisory reportedly after Venugopal Badaravada, a farmers' representative from Varanasi nominated to the board of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, wrote to the prime minister objecting to it. Badaravada told this correspondent that the milk of all indigenous cows is A2 milk, which has health benefits.

He said the prime minister had endorsed the A2 milk of Kankrej and Gir breed cows while inaugurating Amul units at Deesa in Banaskantha district in December 2016. He had recommended it for health-conscious folks and children suffering from malnutrition, according to a Press Information Bureau report. Badaravada said the PM had launched 'Amul Deshi A2 Cow Milk' at that event. That being the case, the FSSAI could not issue an advisory without wide consultations. 

Hegde says the government should issue "corrective directives" based on evidence so that "ignorant consumers" are not harmed and the economy of small farmers is hurt. 

Vivian Fernandes is a journalist with more than three decades of practice.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of NDTV Profit or its editorial team.