New Delhi, June 22 -- In February, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) officials busted a 'synthetic milk' manufacturing unit in Gujarat's Sabarkantha district. They found that the unit was using a combination of detergent, urea, caustic soda, whey, refined palm and soybean oil, as well as skimmed milk powder to manufacture 'synthetic milk'-the adulterated kind, not lab-grown, animal-free dairy, which is a genuine business (the lab variety is, however, not recognized as a category of milk under India's food safety regulations).

Officials alleged that about 300 litres of normal milk were being used to produce between 1,700 litres and 1,800 litres of imitation milk every day in Sabarkantha. The so-called synthetic product ...