|
|
|
You can get e-magazine links on WhatsApp. Click here
|
|
|
|
|
|
Value added dairy products
|
|
Wednesday, 01 December, 2021, 13 : 00 PM [IST]
|
|
Bakul Govil
|
India is a milk loving country. In the country milk is considered as meal completer as it contains lots of vitamins and minerals, good fats and good source of protein. It is consumed as it is or hot or cold or flavoured, in the form of dessert or medicine or to make other value-added products like cheese, paneer, baby foods, ghee, butter, cream, yoghurt or other probiotic drinks.
And this value-added market has taken dairy market with storm a s the spending power of Indians getting increased their willingness to consume these superfoods also getting increased. These value-added products have been created by alteration, adding additives, segregation of pure milk and adapting these techniques dairy industry creating more profitable and sustainable products out of milk and allowing FMCG and dairies to make more revenue out of it.
Though packaged milk is still a key driver in the dairy industry, value -added products have promised a growth of 15-20 percent every year and soon its going to surpass the sales of liquid milk.
Earlier our lifestyle uses to gives us the time to make our own butter, ghee & set our own curd but now fast pacing lifestyle moves us to an alternate to buy it from the market. In the early days there were only bigger dairy based companies captured the market but now foreign companies and local dairies and new dairy-based start-ups are coming with better quality with a price. People who can afford those are becoming loyal to them for their quality products. Since the dynamics are changing and life is getting busier day by day people are moving to the packaged probiotic drinks like lassi or buttermilk.
There was a time when summers bring the boost in the sales of carbonated soft drinks but now since people are versed about the side effects of carbonated drinks there is an alternate market for natural and probiotic drinks like juices and milk-based beverages. And looking into that the FMCG and dairy companies are coming up with a wide variety of products with different flavours and chocolate and butterscotch milk are not alone in the market.
I remember during my childhood train journeys used to bring the access to these products on the railway stations. I personally am very fond of milk and milk products used to buy flavoured milk, lassi or shrikhand. Buttermilk was not on my consuming list. But now since time has changed and my palate has developed the taste of savoury milk products.
Even now I personally do not consume carbonated drinks because of the very high content of sugar and other ill effects on the health. Getting into the dependence of dairy products leads to a healthier lifestyle. The doctors are recommending the probiotic drinks to people who have digestive issues.
One of the factors of rise in the purchase of Dairy products are the ease in availability in the market since the milk is source from the local farmers and the middlemen in no more in the action so the price is very strategic and considerable. For example, Even the camel milk is readily available in the market and considered on the top of the nutrition chart. Since it is very helpful to regulate the level of insulin secretion, it is marketed as a milk for diabetics. If we move to the other considerate product from the industry which is very popular among middle class household is cheese.
Earlier it is used to be a delicacy and now you can find various cheese varieties like cheese spread and cubes on every household’s table. Tough Raw cheese and other varieties like Gouda, Emmenthal, Ricotta etc are still considered as gourmet products which we can see a necessity in the near future.
The more reason to the growth of value-added dairy products is that these products are more sustainable in compare to the raw milk. By processing milk by the techniques of Pasteurization or UTH (Ultra Heat Treatment), the milk and other milk products can be made into more viable products by increasing their shelf life and less wastage. The wastage can be more reduced by the production and consumption of value-added dairy products.
A carton milk can be kept in the shelves for 3 months if unopened. Curds can be kept for many days by using pasteurized milk. Fresh Cream if unopened can be kept for months, same goes for other products like bottled milk, flavoured milk and the magical milk powder is very sustainable product. Though market has alternate to the other non-dairy products like dairy creamer or soy milk or almond milk but the requirement for the milk and milk products doesn’t seem to get reduced in the near future.
The key to success to this industry is to market a high-quality product to a very reasonable price with the availability of the products in the near vicinity and the availability is continuous. The continuous delivery of the products makes this market a promising one. Continuously the parameters are changing for improving the quality of the products. Though we need to increase the number of farms and farmers since the demand of milk and its products are increasing day by day.
(The author is freelance consultant chef)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|