Myths and realities amidst growing concern
The contribution of livestock sector to the food basket in the form of milk, eggs and meat has been immense in fulfilling the animal protein requirement of ever-growing human population. Jammu and Kashmir has huge livestock wealth. In spite of its big potential because of large livestock population, the meat and milk industry in Jammu and Kashmir has not even been able to meet the local requirement of meat, milk and eggs, leave aside the export of these products. There are a number of reasons for this. The issues of low productivity, lack of significant commercial farming, poor hygiene, inferior quality and food safety are considered as real stumbling blocks in the growth of livestock products industry. However, a number of steps have been initiated at the national level recently, which has given an impetus to the meat and milk industry. India is already world’s largest milk producer and is set to become the largest meat exporter. The meat industry is expected to grow annually by an estimated 8 percent over the next five years. The processed meat industry is growing even much faster, at about 20 percent. Jammu & Kashmir not only lags behind in the production of meat and milk but state has miserably failed in ensuring availability of safe milk and meat.
MILK
Though in last few years a number of milk processing units have come up in the state, however they have not exerted any positive impact on the production scene. There has not been any significant improvement in the local production of milk (in comparison to national level growth rates). This is because most of our dairy processing ventures doesn’t focus on working with farmers at the grass- roots level, which explains why there has been no impact of such dairy ventures on the local production scenario or on socio-economic lives of farmers. As an example Nestle, the global giant in dairying, revolutionized milk production in many countries by adopting an innovative model referred to as ‘Swiss milk district model’, which involves a strong farmer centric approach. Yet our dairy companies have been preferring importation of liquid and skimmed milk powder from northern Indian states to sell in the local market for sheer profit making. In absence of a strong local dairy cooperative movement (like AMUL), the local dairy industry is still primitive in structure and is highly dominated by traditional milkmen. Now coming to the food safety part, as we know milk is consumed by almost everyone, it is intricately linked to the public health. Organized dairying involves many processing steps -- farm, packaging plant, delivery – before reaching the consumers who drink it. Milk is moved, processed and stored in huge batches that get distributed and consumed quickly. Should a toxin be injected (adulteration ) or safety checks not taken care of somewhere along the supply chain, experts believe it could have devastating human health and economic consequences.
Quality control is an essential component of any milk processing industry whether small, medium or large scale. Milk being made up of 87 percent water is prone to adulteration by unscrupulous middlemen and unfaithful farm workers. Moreover, its high nutritive value makes it an ideal medium for the rapid multiplication of bacteria, particularly under unhygienic production and storage at ambient temperatures. We know that, in order for any processor to make good dairy products, good quality raw materials are essential. A milk processor or handler will only be assured of the quality of raw milk if certain basic quality tests are carried out at various stages of transportation of milk from the producer to the processor and finally to the consumer.
I don’t know if our local processing units are conducting approved tests to ensure the application of safe practices, standards and regulations concerning the milk and milk products. The tests are designed to ensure that milk products meet accepted standards for chemical composition and purity as well as levels of different microorganisms. A comprehensive range of various general, instrumental, physical chemistry and residue testing (like acidity, alkalinity, fat, pesticides, nitrites, bulk density, gravity, antibiotic residues etc ) is mandatory before supplying finished product to the market.
We have been regularly hearing about the cases of willful adulteration of milk with detergents and urea, which points towards the fact that state quality regulatory system is inefficient and the local dairy processing companies either don’t take quality seriously or they don’t have effective quality management systems in place to ensure safety of milk from farmers gate to consumers table. Regulatory authorities have to play more pro-active role in order to ensure strict compliance to laid down parameters by the dairy food processing industry.
MEAT
Meat is one of the most nutritious foods in the world. Meat contains biologically high quality protein and is an excellent sources of several other nutrients, containing all of the essential amino acids, and in most cases is a good source of zinc, vitamin B12, selenium, phosphorus, niacin, vitamin B6, choline, riboflavin and iron. Several forms of meat are also high in vitamin K. Jammu and Kashmir is one of the top meat consuming states of India and most of our supplies come from outside the state.
Is their any risk associated with meat consumption?
Some people argue that meat causes several diseases like cancer and heart disease. Does meat really cause cancer and heart disease? Well, recent evidence based scientific studies conclude that unprocessed fresh and moderately cooked meats don’t significantly increase the risk of cancer and heart diseases. A 1999 metastudy combined data from five studies from western countries. The metastudy reported mortality ratios, where lower numbers indicated fewer deaths, for fish eaters to be 0.82, vegetarians to be 0.84, occasional meat eaters to be 0.84. Regular meat eaters and vegans shared the highest mortality ratio of 1.00. Similarly Key et al. found that "there were no significant differences between vegetarians and non vegetarians in mortality from cerebrovascular disease, stomach cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer or all other causes combined." Truswell reviewed numerous studies, concluding that the relationship of colorectal cancer with meat consumption appeared weaker than the "probable" status it had been given by the World Cancer Research Foundation in 1997. However, most of the researchers conclude that, consumption of processed meats (which is hardly available in a developing state like Kashmir) may significantly increase the risk of heart diseases and some types of cancer. In conclusion, a moderate intake of fresh unprocessed and moderately cooked meat poses no health risk.
Is the meat we consume safe?
Many people argue that dangerous additives, chemicals and hormones are used to raise commercial food animals. Although use of antibiotic growth promoters in poultry/food animals is dangerous and poses a serious public health risk, the levels of antibiotic residues found in Indian poultry meat is well below the maximum permissible limit (a study done by Venkys Group found out that antibiotic such as ciprofloxacin, the residue of which found in Delhi/NCR region was 0.00355 to 0.06459 ppm, the EU Standard recommends a range of 0.1 to 0.3 ppm. Similarly EU Standard recommends enrofloxacin range to be 0.1 to 0.3 ppm and in Delhi/NCR region it was found to be in the range of 0.0037 to 0.131 ppm, and for Oxytetracycline the international standard varied from 0.1 to 0.3 ppm under EU Standards and 2.0 to 12 ppm under the US Standards, among others). The rapid growth in poultry now-a-days had been made possible by advancement in the field of genetics and superior nutrition, it has got nothing to do with use of steroids. Buffalo, sheep and goat are mostly raised organically on natural diets, and thus there is no food safety issue linked to meat from such animals.
What are the quality challenges associated with meat and meat products?
There are many diseases which are caused by consuming meat contaminated by pathogenic (disease-causing) micro-organisms such as bacteria and their toxins, viruses and parasites. They enter the body through the gastrointestinal tract where the first symptoms often occur. Some of the diseases can be fatal. Many of these micro-organisms are commonly found in the intestines of healthy food-producing animals. The risks of contamination are present from farm to consumers table and require prevention and control throughout the food chain. Mainly contamination can occur at farm, during slaughter, during further processing, and in the kitchen.
How is quality of meat controlled?
Globally an integrated approach to meat safety is applied from the farm to the consumer’s table. Main steps include:
a. Ante-mortem & Post-Mortem inspection of meat by qualified veterinary doctors.
b. General Meat microbiologic testing and detection of pathogenic germs.
c. Detection of organic/inorganic containments and organic residues.
2. Analytical tests
a. Rapid and reliable identification of meat species by real time PCR, DNA sequencing, and ELISA test.
b. Monitoring of public health risks through veterinary drug screening and testing in meat by using latest High resolution LC-MS technology.
We all know such broad-based integrated approach to safety of meat and meat products is lacking in our state. Job of ensuring safety of livestock origin food has been handed over to municipal authorities, which are professionally speaking, unfit to carry out this vital task. In order to ensure superior hygiene, quality and meat safety, government needs to come up with an innovative quality management plan, which must involve human and veterinary public health officials. We need a state of the art quality control and analytical laboratory for meat and meat products to meet the required domestic and international meat quality standards.
A veterinarian tunred entrepreneur, Fayyaz Ganie is the founder & CEO of Truevet Biosciences a Srinagar based biotechnological company
