Chennai: State dairy development minister K T Rajenthra Bhalaji on Tuesday accused two private milk companies of adulterating their products with chemicals before selling them."These two brands are using caustic soda and bleaching powder in spoilt milk. After using these chemicals in the milk, they convert it to powder which is consumed by children. How safe is it for children to drink this milk?" asked the minister during an interaction with journalists at his residence.It is only because of such adulterated milk that people get sick, he said. "I am not accusing all private milk companies. But, apart from these two brands, there are others that use chemicals and I will share their names after we get the reports," added the minister.The minister shared the lab reports with journalists. The milk samples, he said, were sent to a Chennai-based private lab on June 12 and the report was released on June 13.Last month, Bhalaji set off a controversy by alleging that toxic preservatives in milk and milk products of private producers were the cause of cancer in many children. He cautioned people against consuming milk sold by private dairies.The minister praised the milk brands of the state milk marketing federation Aavin and said it was "as good as mother's milk". "The milk samples were not sent by us. The person who sent the samples to the lab had also sent Aavin milk samples. Aavin milk samples did not throw up any negative results. It only proves that Aavin milk is the best," said Bhalaji.Asked whether he would ban the two brands, the minister said he would discuss the reports with chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and take a decision. "The reports will have to be shown to the health department and also discussed with our department secretary. The chief minister will take a final decision," said the minister.Bhalaji said government will increase the amount of milk procured from farmers and sell it under the Aavin brand.

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