Milk quality in India is facing number of challenges like bacterial and somatic cell counts which are currently far above standards defined in Europe or the USA. Moreover, the participants defined that contamination with antibiotics and aflatoxins are major additional challenges.

Drivers for milk quality: “Maybe we should better define the root cause for the problem” said Amitabha Ray, Chairman of Schreiber Dynamix. Overall awareness and knowledge on milk quality issue has a big potential to be developed among consumers and actors in the milk supply chain. “By boiling the milk which most Indian consumers do, they assume that milk quality issues can be solved. Unfortunately, this is only partly true” concluded Anders Fagerberg Chairman of IFCN.

The way forward: “Milk quality management has to start at the farm level and has to move along the supply chain” said Torsten Hemme Managing Director of the IFCN. It was concluded that quality standards for raw milk and dairy products have to be defined together by the government and the dairy industry to make a great step forward. This should be on a solid scientific base and be practical to implement today. Over time these standards can be gradually improved.

The benefits: A well define quality management system will also improve efficiency and competitiveness. Via this local dairy producer will be able to compete with potential imports and can harvest value creating dairy export opportunities.

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