Nov 27, 2017
Companies begin fortifying Milk with Vitamin A, D to combat deficiencies
Milk producers were asked to include the micronutrients by the FSSAI, India’s top food regulator
A Mother Dairy outlet in Ghaziabad.
Milk suppliers in India have begun fortifying their product with Vitamin A and D after the country’s food regulator laid down new guidelines to combat common their deficiencies.
Around 70-90% of Indians are estimated to have insufficient or deficient levels of Vitamins A and D, studies have shown, prompting the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to ask milk producers to add 770 IU of Vitamin A and 550 IU of Vitamin D per litre of milk.
“Fortification of milk can act as a complementary strategy and help reduce the gap and can act as a vehicle to carry Vitamin A and Vitamin D,” said Pawan Aggarwal, CEO-FSSAI.
The additions are being made across all range of milk sold: skimmed milk, double toned milk, toned milk and standard.
“The fortification will help provide 15-30% of the daily requirement for these vitamins. National-level consultations were conducted to make the industry aware of the standards and were requested to take up the fortification of milk for public good.”
India is today the largest producer of milk at approximately 160 million metric tons per annum.
The per capita availability of milk is approximately 357 ml.
Milk is a complete food and is a good carrier of Vitamin A and Vitamin D.
But, due to the processing needs and the current insufficiency/ deficiency in the population, not enough of these vitamins are delivered through food.
Many of FSSAI’s development partners have taken the initiative forward.
“Like TATA Trusts have supported the states of Jharkhand and Assam to start the fortification of their milk variants. Mother Dairy took the initiative to fortify its complete range and today sells about 25 lac liters per day (LLPD) of fortified milk,” he said.
“Today, including Mother Dairy, 5 more states and a couple of private dairies are already fortifying milk, totalling to 10% of the total 410 LLPD fortifiable milk in the country. Another 5 states are in advance stages to launch the fortified milk in next 2 months which will take the total fortified milk to 20% of the 410 LLPD. With this the fortified milk will reach about 50 million people in the country.”
The plan is to fortify about 50% of the country’s milk by 2019 and 80% by 2021.
“The landscape analysis of the private dairies is being done by Tata Trusts and very soon the campaign will start to include them in this initiative,” Agarwal said.
“Fortification is a complementary strategy to build the nation and provide nutrition security to the population of the country.”
Cap on antibiotic use in milk, egg & animal food
An official said the levels of antibiotic resistance in India has already risen to life-threatening levels in case of patients affected by tuberculosis and urinary.
New Delhi : If the antibiotics don’t work on you falling ill, blame it on milk, eggs, chicken and other food stuff of animal origin. The Government has woken up only now to the menace of growing anti-antibiotic resistance in human beings because of all these products.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) early this week issued a draft gazette notification fixing tolerance limit of antibiotics and pharmacologically active substances in food stuff of the animal origin, inviting comments from the stakeholders within 30 days.
How soon FSSAI is able to enforce this notification is anybody’s guess as it does not have the staff to actually put the limits into practice to save us from the antibiotic resistance phenomenon rising every day.
It acted swiftly on the alarm bells rung by the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on how the global fast-food chains like McDonald’s and KFC care hoots to the antibiotic misuse in the Chicken they use even while they have complied with eliminating the antibiotics in the countries like US, Russia, the Europe, Australia and even Brazil.
The CSE did not ask for banning the use of antibiotics, but a stop to their misuse and this is exactly FSSAI is now trying to enforce by capping the maximum level of drugs that can be used for growth promotion of the animals, chickens and fish.
An official of the Health Ministry, under which FSSAI operates, explained that antibiotics and pharmacologically active substances are required for disease control while their residue may appear in milk and food from animals unless controlled and their consumption by humans may develop antibiotic resistance much faster than the pace of new drug developments.
Noting that internationally use of antibiotics and pharmacologically active substances in food stuff of animal origin, including fish and fisheries products, is prohibited, the gazette notification says: “There is ample evidence of development of antibiotic resistance in human pathogen, if these substances continue to come through food.
The FSSAI decided to act on the CSE report that highlighted how chickens are given antibiotic-laced feed to speed up their growth so that they produce meat in a shorter number of days, ready for slaughter in a fewer number of days. The CSE reported rampant misuse of the antiboitics in large quantity in both chicken and fish farming that has brought the life-threatening problem of antibiotic resistance among humans.
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