No, WHO Did Not Say 87% of Indians Will Get Cancer From Adulterated Milk by 2025

The WHO issued a clarification stating that they had not issued any advisory of this nature.

The claim in the viral screenshot is false. WHO has not issued an advisory about adulterated milk.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

A screenshot of a Hindi news article from 2018 is being shared to claim that the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a warning, which states that 87 percent of Indians were at risk of suffering from cancer by the year 2025 due to the consumption of adulterated milk.

What does it say?: The article, titled, "दूध नहीं ज़हर पीता है इंडिया, उत्पादन 14 करोड़ लीटर लेकिन खपत 64 करोड़ लीटर," [India drinks poison, not milk. Production is 14 crore litres but consumption is 64 crore litres] claims that the WHO issued a warning about adulterated milk in India.

• It mentions that around 68.7 percent of milk and dairy based products were found to be adulterated and were not as per the standards of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

An archived version of this post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Archived versions of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here, here, and here.)

But...?: The article in the screenshot, first published by Hindi news organisation Dainik Bhaskar, makes false claims. The WHO has denied issuing any notice regarding adulterated milk with respect to India.

How did we find out the truth?: To begin with, we ran a searching using the Hindi headline in the screenshot as keywords.

• The results led us to a 2018 article by Dainik Bhaskar, which is where the claim originated from.

The claim originated from a 2018 report by Dainik Bhaskar.

(Source: Dainik Bhaskar/Screenshot)

• We then ran a keyword searching using the term 'WHO adulterated milk India', which took us to a notice issued by the body, clarifying that it had "not issued any advisory to the Government of India on the issue of adulteration of milk/milk products."

The WHO issued a clarification regarding the claim.

(Source: WHO/Screenshot)

• A press release issued by the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and posted on the Press Information Bureau (PIB) website also clarified that the WHO had not issued any such advisory.

• It added that the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairy (DAHD), Government of India, and FSSAI were "taking all possible steps" to ensure the supply of good-quality milk to consumers.

The Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying also debunked the claim.

(Source: PIB/Screenshot)

Conclusion: The WHO has not issued an advisory stating that 87 percent of Indians will get cancer by 2025, due to adulterated milk.

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