One of 17 brands of milk for sale in Mexico tested by the federal consumer protection agency Profeco was not actually milk due to the ingredients added to it, while some others had incorrect labels or packaging.
For the June edition of its magazine Revista del Consumidor, Profeco analyzed eight full-cream milks and nine others.
The agency declared that Los 19 Hermanos full-cream milk is not in fact milk because it contains vegetable fat.
“It turns out that a milk made in the highlands of Jalisco is not milk because they add vegetable fat, and that can’t be done,” said Profeco chief Ricardo Sheffield. “People feel that the milk is creamy but it’s not — because it contains soy,” he said.
The producer, a family company called Los 19 Hermanos, will be fined.
Profeco also found that one of the company’s products didn’t have as much milk as its packaging says. Liter bags of Los 19 Hermanos milk sold in lots of three contained as little as 964 milliliters. Profeco detected a deficit of 107 ml across one lot of three-liter bags.
Another swindler was the Querétaro full cream milk brand. Profeco found that its 1.89 liter bottles contained up to 75 ml less than the amount printed on the label.
Two Lala milk products also fell foul of Profeco’s analysis. Neither the Lala 100 Fresca lactose-free, low carb, partially skimmed milk nor the Lala 100 Fresca lactose-free partially skimmed milk contains enough non-fat solids to be considered lactose-free milk. In addition, neither milk met density requirements for lactose-free milk.
“The process to which these products are subjected to eliminate lactose results in the density parameters and the quantity of non-fat solids being lower than required,” Profeco said.
The milk brands that passed Profeco’s analysis without a hitch are listed below:
- Lala Light
- Leche León
- Lala 100 sin lactosa
- Lala Deslactosada
- Leche Monarca
- Alpura Clásica
- Lala entera
- Lala Orgánica
- Liconsa
- Sello Rojo
- Bioré
- Gota Blanca
With reports from Milenio and Reporte Indigo
