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Consumers prefer single source milk for quality and hygiene
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Wednesday, 13 July, 2022, 15 : 00 PM [IST]
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Divay Mehta
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Milk has been an intrinsic part of diet for as long as history goes, be it an auspicious occasion or an athlete’s diet it has always had a place of its own. In light of the health benefits known, it is an endorsed drink in general. As the dietary choices evolved people have started become more inclined towards organic, vegan, low-carb and various other known consumables.
Single Sources milk ensures the integrity of the product by fully identifying the cow from whom the milk in the bottles was derived. The quality and health of cows is accurately assessed by a close contact with them.
The milk that is typically available in stores and supermarkets is a vast mixing of milk from many locations, with countless cows contributing to the contents of the bottle. This isn't strictly a negative thing as it ensures a certain level of supply and stability across the board, but it does take away transparency and lessens the unique characteristics that have historically made drinking milk enjoyable.
There are a lot of known benefits of single sourced milk:
- The flavour of milk is far better than the regular one because the diet of cows from whom the milk is derived, is purely organic, healthy and monitored.
- Quality of this milk speaks for itself due to the same reasons mentioned in point one. Here, we also have to put some light on the fact that the cows are kept in a healthy environment and since the focus is entirely on them, the minutest details of their health are in check.
- Hygiene is one of the top contributing factors in the increasing interest of consumers in single source milk.
- Single sourced milk is known to be free from hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals so the consumers get a milk which is free from adulteration.
- This usually reaches the consumers straight from the farm through a cold chain delivery system.
- For maintaining the purity of this milk and the advancement in technology this milk is never touched by anyone throughout the process. Automated plants ensure complete safety, hygiene and quality.
The care and feeding of the cows are essential in the production of organic milk. The majority of farms that produce organic milk are characterised by their use of technology, which makes it possible to utilise automatic milkers, cow health monitoring systems, bio digesters, fodder choppers, and chilling units. The animals are raised in a sterile, hygienic environment and are subjected to routine veterinarian examinations.
However, as healthy as this milk is or may sound there are numerous challenges pertaining to it-
- Since it is known that this milk reaches from farm to consumers through a cold chain delivery system, there is no denying the fact that there are many areas which do not have the facilities, due to which the transportation of this milk becomes difficult.
- Everything from the care of cattle to hygiene, from processing to packaging and all the aftermath has to be done single handed, this might be one of the major challenges faced by the producers.
- The cattle feed has to be organic, hygienic therefore generally a large space is required to grow the same. In addition to it a large area is required for the cattle itself and the processing unit. The accessibility and availability of this kind of are is a major challenge to set up a plant.
- The demand-supply has not reached its mark yet. The producers of single source milk are not yet able to meet the demand as the market is growing at a very high pace.
- Due to the investment in terms of infrastructure, care and other factors this comes at a premium price which is a challenge the consumers face.
Food at its purest form was once not very difficult to find but as population hiked and demand increased technology evolved to meet the requirement. However, now with the passage of time people have started understanding the importance of healthy food which does not just mean speciality food or specific diets but it means pure food.
Due to this awareness people are now ready to invest more but demand Quality. Single source milk is one of such food, which is preferred by people due to its health benefits and the cherry on cake is its taste.
(The author is assistant professor at Sunder Deep College of Hotel Management, Sunder Deep Group of Institutions.
He can be reached at dmehta2409@gmail.com)
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