Dairy products to carry quality mark

The logo will be unveiled on Thursday

VADODARA: Like Woolmark assures you of getting quality wool and Agmark and ISI marks are assurance that the agriculture produce or industrial products that you buy are of good quality and standards, dairy products in the country including milk pouches will have a quality mark logo on them.

The Anand-headquartered National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) on Thursday will unveil the quality mark logo which will be launched by union minister for agriculture and farmers welfare Radha Mohan Singh at Krishi Bhavan in New Delhi.

The dairy products carrying this quality mark logo will assure the consumers that the products are free from any kind of adulteration. The union minister will award certificates to 14 selected manufacturing units for adopting food safety and quality management systems for milk and milk products and adhering to quality mark parameters. The first 14 manufacturing units selected for the award certificates include six manufacturing units based in Karnataka that manufacture dairy products under Nandini brand, four units that manufacture Punjab's popular Verka brand, Junagadh and Kutch Dairy of Gujarat which are makers of Mahi brand and two manufacturing units run by Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetable Private Limitedbased in Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh that manufacture Mother Dairy products.

NDDB's quality mark will provide dairy cooperatives and producer institutions the much needed brand identity and a competitive edge, said NDDB's chairman Dilip Rath.

"This will also contribute to building consumer confidence in dairy cooperative brands. It is aimed at bringing about process improvement in the entire value chain from producer to the consumer to ensure availability of quality milk and products," a NDDB official said.

The Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries (DAHDF) and NDDB are providing necessary funding and technical assistance under various schemes such as National Programme for Dairy Development and National Dairy Plan to the dairy cooperatives to help them bring about process improvements in their dairy value chain to qualify for award of "quality mark".

An 11-member management committee comprising of DAHDF representative, managing directors of four federations, a representative from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and two experts in dairying will oversee activities of the quality mark.

As part of the scheme, interested federations, cooperative dairies, government dairy units can apply for the quality mark. Only dairy units that adopt food safety and quality management systems for milk and milk products and adhere to parameters given in the guidelines of quality mark are eligible for it.