The Food Safety Commissioner on Monday informed the Madras High Court that Food Safety and Standards (Packaging) Regulations, 2018, permit the sale of milk in multiple packaging materials, including glass bottles, rigid plastic containers, flexible plastic pouches and paper cartons with aluminium foil liner. Therefore, Aavin has chosen to sell milk in plastic pouches.
Justices S. Vaidyanathan and P.T. Asha were told by Additional Advocate-General J. Ravindran that the 2018 rules permit packaging of milk and milk products even in mud or clay pots. He said the rules list 18 materials in which milk and milk products could be packaged and the sellers were free to choose their preferred material.
The submission was made following a query raised by the court, seized of a case related to banned plastics, as to why Aavin does not revert to its old method of selling milk in glass bottles from the practice in vogue of using plastic pouches. The judges wondered whether those pouches were being disposed of properly without harming the environment.
