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A friend of mine, a chemistry teacher, taught in an Indian school for a number of years. He said a huge problem was buying milk for the students that wasn't cut

A friend of mine, a chemistry teacher, taught in an Indian school for a number of years. He said a huge problem was buying milk for the students that wasn't cut with bad water and/or other chemicals. They tried paying above market price, equivalent to the price of pure milk, and it worked for a while, but he kept testing the milk and found the vendor eventually started diluting the milk. I guess the temptation was great. This startup looks like it may solve that problem!

nordsieck 8y ago
Apparently many people in China buy imported powdered milk for the same reason - the local stuff may be adulterated.
- toomanybeersies 8y ago
  Not that the powder being imported stops adulteration from happening: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal There is a cottage industry in Australia and New Zealand of people sending back milk powder and infant formula to China, often with newspapers or other proof that the package originated in Australia or NZ. There's no guarantee that the "NZ milk powder" you buy in China is real, however a sealed package from NZ is fairly certainly going to be real. I used to have a colleague from China who would bring an extra suitcase filled with infant formula and multivitamins evert time he went back home to China for his relatives. There are now limits on the amount of infant formula you can buy at supermarkets here, especially in areas with a high concentration of Asian immigrants. Supermarket shelves were getting cleared out by grey-market exporters.
  - chii 8y ago
    I'm surprised the response to grey market exporters is to limit sales. Why not produce more? I don't believe there's a shortage of milk in Aus.
thisisit 8y ago
It might also have to do something with demand and income levels. As both of them rise people who could afford buying unadulterated milk meant the vendor had bigger demands to meet. Now he could either raise the price, something which might be frowned upon. Or start diluting the milk unless he is caught and forced to raise the price.

nordsieck 8y ago

Apparently many people in China buy imported powdered milk for the same reason - the local stuff may be adulterated.

toomanybeersies 8y ago
Not that the powder being imported stops adulteration from happening: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal There is a cottage industry in Australia and New Zealand of people sending back milk powder and infant formula to China, often with newspapers or other proof that the package originated in Australia or NZ. There's no guarantee that the "NZ milk powder" you buy in China is real, however a sealed package from NZ is fairly certainly going to be real. I used to have a colleague from China who would bring an extra suitcase filled with infant formula and multivitamins evert time he went back home to China for his relatives. There are now limits on the amount of infant formula you can buy at supermarkets here, especially in areas with a high concentration of Asian immigrants. Supermarket shelves were getting cleared out by grey-market exporters.
- chii 8y ago
  I'm surprised the response to grey market exporters is to limit sales. Why not produce more? I don't believe there's a shortage of milk in Aus.

thisisit 8y ago

It might also have to do something with demand and income levels. As both of them rise people who could afford buying unadulterated milk meant the vendor had bigger demands to meet. Now he could either raise the price, something which might be frowned upon. Or start diluting the milk unless he is caught and forced to raise the price.