News Tamil Nadu

Self-Styled “Fact-Checker” Gets Schooled By Netizens As He Tries To Buttress DMK Govt On Aavin Fat Content Issue

November 21, 2023
The Commune

Following the allegations levelled by Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party Chief K Annamalai, the “Mission Director” of the Fact-Checking Unit (FCU) set up by the Tamil Nadu government, Iyan Karthikeyan stepped into the scene. 

To prove his worthiness, he “fact-checked” the claim made by Annamalai, or so we thought. Instead of proving that the milk contained a specific amount of fat as claimed or other details that pertained to the topic of discussion, he ended up fact-checking the “container” in which the sample was received.

He wrote, “Sample received in PET container But, Aavin is not selling milk in PET container and it is not mentioned as Aavin. Sample must be sent with original pack without any mal practice.”

Annamalai had posted about the difference in fat percentage in the Green Magic milk variant supplied by Aavin compared to what was claimed by them. He wrote on his X handle, “Tamil Nadu Government’s Aavin Milk Company has decided to stop the sale of green packet milk, which has been in use for the last forty years, is strongly condemned. The decision to stop the sale of green packet milk with 4.5% fat content and to sell purple packet milk with 3.5% fat content is an act of cheating the public. Orange packet milk, which should already contain 6% fat content, has 4.79% fat content, according to a study conducted by a Food Safety and Standardization Authority (FSSAI) approved laboratory. We have attached this test report for the Minister’s consideration. This corrupt DMK government is deliberately playing with the development of children who depend on Aavin company’s milk by reducing the fat content. Also, I urge the Tamil Nadu government to immediately stop deceiving the public by reducing the fat content of milk and not reducing the price, and provide quality milk at the price paid by the public.”

Iyan Karthikeyan’s dubious fact-check was debunked by netizens. One of them shared a video of how a test is done in the lab. The video showed how a sample is taken in a sterile PET container and how the process is carried out in a laboratory.

Another netizen called out his assumption that samples taken for testing are taken directly from the milk packet rather than a sterile container. He also shared a detailed infographic on what a milk sample bottle looks like, what is it used for, etc. 

Tamil Nadu BJP Industrial Cell Vice President Selva Kumar slammed Iyan Karthikeyan claiming it to be dubious. He wrote, “FCU Karthikeyan & his team are getting paid crores & crores of taxpayers money only to give “murattu muttu” for all failures & misadventures of this govt. After 20 days of getting appointed as mission director, he just came out today with one single tweet asking for “original pack”. How can an illegal FCU dictate terms on how a sample should be tested? Do you mean to say that when blood samples are given, it should be taken from the body directly not just a few ml of sample blood? Cheating people is not new for this govt, In Feb 2023, Aavin Coimbatore started supplying green magic milk with just 3.5% milk printed on the back but on the front, it continued to say 4.5% in large font. When many milk dealers across TN started questioning the government, they introduced a new category Purple.”

Several others schooled the “Mission Director” of the FCU on how a sample is taken and in what container a milk sample is taken for testing.

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