Think of milk, and you think of nice synonyms like 'wholesome', 'nourishing', 'good-for-you''.

A far cry from what the state's largest supplier of milk, which sells a popular brand of milk and other dairy products is and which is a "household name for fresh milk". We will have to redefine "fresh" going by the marketing tactics of this perishable item.

On May 19, I stopped at a retail outlet in south Bangalore and seeing the delivery van unloading crates of milk pouches in front of the shop, asked for one litre from the fresh supply.

The shopkeeper insisted that the packet he was giving me from his freezer was also "fresh", delivered a short while earlier, and that this lot being unloaded was meant for some function. On reaching home and boiling the milk, I discovered that it curdled.

On checking the date stamp on the packet I noticed that it said 18.5.2007 – and this was on the 19th.
I walked back in anger, clutching the empty pouch, and gave the shop supervisor a piece of my mind. The manager gave me a replacement with "fresh milk" but now comes the really interesting part – this time the pouch was stamped "20.5.2007" though 20th was still a day away.

Tomorrow's milk today? Look at the implications. Those who buy milk pouches stamped 20th on 20th, will actually be taking away milk that was packed a day earlier and was therefore stale.

The pouch itself says that the contents will not last beyond one day, so what is the point in stamping tomorrow's date on today's packets, unless it is to cheat the public into believing that they are getting "fresh milk" when they are actually getting a day-old product?

 I had already mentioned this anomaly some months ago in my column, but apparently, the marketing management does not believe in heeding consumers' complaints appearing in the media.

Attempts to telephone the number printed on the milk packets brought no response, the website gives no e-mail address for sending complaints, and a written complaint mailed the same day (19th) has  brought no response or explanation as yet.

So much for consumer-friendly policies adopted by the "apex body in Karnataka" for a product that no household can do without, whether it is a slum dwelling or a fancy penthouse.

Buy “fresh” milk on 19th, and you get packets stamped  18th and 20th, both offered as "fresh" ! 

I  then checked some more packets in north Bangalore. Some packets did not even display the date stamp, on some the stamp was not decipherable.

What's going on? The popular conception is that the neighbourhood milkman who brings fresh milk  in aluminium cans on a bicycle, cheats by adding water to the milk, or gives  short measure.

We go for packed pouches on the assumption that big companies and cooperative operators in particular, will not cheat, and can be trusted.

If milk packed on the 19th (that too, in the early hours at the latest, since the delivery vans bring the packets round by ten or so – I would like to know in fact, whether the process of packaging for packets delivered on the 19th, does not start on the 18th night itself) is sold  stamped  with the 20th as the date of packing, what does one call it except cheating on a massive scale? Is it not illegal to stamp a forthcoming date, on packets of perishable items? 

The whole point in the long fight that consumer groups put up during the '80s, to get the date stamp on packaged food items, was to ensure that consumers were not cheated.

And here is a leading supplier of milk, one of the most perishable items of food, stamping a spurious date on its packets of "fresh" milk!

There is an illustration of a cow on the website wagging its tail with a leering expression, almost as if saying "boo" to those of us who take the trouble to check dates and pursue the matter.

I know that at least one Bangalorean took the trouble to file a complaint recently, under the Consumer Protection Act,  and even tried to mobilise neighbours to support her complaint.

I don't know the status of that case in the district forum, but I am wondering how many among the lakhs of consumers who buy milk, even check the date stamp on the packets, or protest about  malpractices like stamping with the next day's date, instead of the real date of packing.

Unless people complain, the milk supplier is going to merrily continue to supply stale milk disguised as "fresh".