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Thursday March 28, 2024

Empowering processed milk industry to boost overall dairy sector

By Syed Jawaid Iqbal
April 04, 2019

Milk is considered to be one of the basic commodities and a comprehensive source of nutrition in one’s day-to-day life as it has all the essential nutrients needed in a well-balanced diet. However, in our country, provision of high quality, safe, and healthy milk has always been a challenge and a point of debate. Recently, food authorities have been carrying out crackdown against loose milk in order to ensure provision of safe and quality milk to the consumers.

There has been long-standing perplexity among consumers when it comes to choose between packaged or loose milk. There are numerous arguments on whether the people should drink packaged milk (pasteurised/ultra high treated) or opt for its loose counterpart, commonly known as ‘khula doodh’.

Pasteurisation, in simple words, is the process of killing all the harmful organisms that can be present in the milk by heating it at a particular temperature. Pakistan is among the top milk producing countries in the world with an estimated annual production of 56,080,000 tons, according to figures published in Pakistan Economic Survey 2016-17, out of which 90 percent to 95 percent of the population still prefers loose milk over packaged milk. The main reason behind this is that people are still not aware of the benefits of packaged milk. Many are still going for loose milk as it has been going on for generations and now it has become a part of their tradition while others just consider it too expensive.

People have categorised packaged milk as the milk that not everyone can afford, these people then opt for khula doodh, and then there are those who can easily buy it.

The processing and packaging of packaged milk apparently add to its cost which makes it expensive as compared to the loose milk and difficult for consumers to buy it. But this often should not be the case as they need to understand that with a little additional cost they are getting safe, healthy and pure milk (free from bacteria), which is not possible if it is loose milk.

Loose milk is collected from the animals without any further processing or testing and is thus full of bacteria. The local milk sellers then tamper it with unfiltered water and store it in plastic bags or unsterilised utensils, which is again unhygienic.

People consuming such milk are not getting the proper nutrients required for their body, which results in malnutrition. A recent health ministry report shows an increase of 12 percent to 13 percent in malnutrition in the last year.

According to a research by the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), loose milk is more likely to cause food-borne illness as the bacteria present in it can be potentially dangerous to older adults, people with weak immune systems, pregnant women, and children. The CDC survey also showed 127 outbreaks linked to loose milk, with 1,909 illnesses and 144 hospitalisations from 1993 to 2012.

This is one of the main reasons why packaged milk is preferred over loose milk. In countries like France, Germany, Spain, Norway, Sweden, and the US, malnutrition and other health issues are very rare. Also, life expectancy is much higher as compared to Pakistan where people cherish when they cross 60. Most states have even imposed a strict ban on the selling and distribution of loose milk.

The leading brands of packaged milk in Pakistan are producing milk with either UHT technology or pasteurisation. Many people still believe that pasteurisation harms the milk but such common myths have been busted by science.

People are also of the misconception that during the process of pasteurisation or UHT, all the nutrients vanish but it is not so. During the process, the milk is heated at a particular temperature for a short time, while preserving the quality and nutrients of the milk in its original form. The process also kills all the harmful bacteria responsible for diseases like typhoid fever, Q fever, listeriosis, brucellosis, tuberculosis, and diphtheria.

The Food Development Authority (FDA) of USA has stated that pasteurisation and UHT do not reduce the nutritional value of milk. Pasteurisation does kill some of the enzymes during the process but those are not needed by human body. Regulated milk industry should make the consumers aware of the number of stringent tests which packaged milk goes through before it is certified as fit for consumption. Dairy industry holds great potential to flourish in Pakistan. However, heavy taxation on dairy items is hampering the industry potential and the burden is also shifted to the consumer side. Some experts suggest that the government should opt for implementing minimum pasteurisation law to turn 95 percent of the untaxed unregulated sector into a formal one. This will result in uniformity of standards in both the fronts.

Empowering processed milk industry will result in empowerment of the overall dairy sector as it will provide more opportunities to the farmers resulting in increase of milk collection points and testing facilities as well as farmers’ education and training will become a lot easier. With the decrease of taxes, the cost of operations will decrease which will increase profit margins and provision of source of good milk.

The writer is a communications expert