Backgrounder
Quality & Food-safety are important factors for ensuring safe, wholesome and hygienic milk and milk products to consumers and is also important for a sustainable operation in dairy sector.
NDDB and BIS have been involved in certification of Process and Products respectively. NDDB has been awarding ‘Quality Mark’ to the dairy plants of cooperatives adhering to the process standards across the dairy value chain helping in building the brand identity for cooperative dairies and enhanced consumer confidence. On the other hand, BIS has a product certification scheme for manufacturers, including dairy product processors which also ensured food safety at product level allowing licensees to use ‘ISI Mark’ on their products.
However there was no unification of product and process certification- making it difficult to dairy plants to avail end to end certification. Further the consumer awareness was also lacking towards quality of milk and products.
With the initiative of the Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Government of India, after extensive stakeholder consultation, a unified Conformity Assessment Scheme was chalked out by BIS with the help of NDDB.
This is a novel and first of its kind certification scheme considering the perishable nature and short shelf-life of milk and milk products, as well as the extensive cold-chain involved in the production and supply of milk and milk products. This has brought ‘Product–Food Safety Management System–Process’ certification under one umbrella with a unified logo featuring the earlier respective logos BIS-ISI mark & NDDB-Quality Mark and Kamdhenu Cow.
This is a significant step towards ensuring Quality & Food safety of Milk and Milk products across the country as the Conformity Assessment Scheme will
- Simplify the certification process
- Create an instantly recognisable logo for public to be reassured about dairy product quality
- Increase the sales of milk and milk products in organized sector and in turn enhancing income of farmers
- Develop a quality culture in the dairy sector