New Delhi, Aug. 3 -- New Delhi's Okhla Mandi, a sprawling wholesale market, supplies fresh produce to vast swathes of homes and restaurants in the city. It is also home to half a dozen paneer or cottage cheese selling units.

Rows of neatly stacked paneer slabs line up the market's covered sheds. The slabs range from 200 grams to 5kg.

At New Haryana Paneer Bhandar, a store in the mandi, cottage cheese can be bought for Rs.270 per kg. Neighbouring Malai Paneer Bhandar sells them at Rs.240 a kg, to small restaurants. Branded and packaged paneer, in contrast, can cost double the price.

Some shopkeepers claimed to source the milk, used to make their paneer, from villages outside Delhi. But anyone who has followed the recent controversy arou...