Mr. Ashish Kumar will present his Ph.D. viva voce examination as per the detail

Date: 3rd October 2022

Time: 1700 hrs.

Venue: CTARA Conference Room No.1

Title: Evaluation and improvement of the factors governing the quality of Milk in India: A case study of Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Supervisor: Prof. Bakul Rao, CTARA

Internal Examiner: Prof. Parameshwar Udmale

External Examiner: Dr. Ravinder Kumar

Chairman: Prof. S. B. Kedare

Abstract:

Food is essential to life, hence food security can be considered as a basic human right. Although for decades the primary approach of achieving food security was through meeting the requisite calories, recently studies highlighted the importance of safe and wholesome food. Different studies have highlighted the tragedies and economic disasters due to failures of ensuring food quality and safety as a result of intentional or unintentional actions. India with the world's largest cattle population is a leading producer of milk, and is claimed to be self-sufficient for dairy. But such an important component for nutritional security was reported to be 68% adulterated by the national food safety agency. This study challenges the basic claim of self-sufficiency in terms of milk production, and food security for milk and milk products. The purpose of this study is to present a model for studying food safety in dairy. A novel model for studying milk safety is presented, which has practical implications for assessing the dairy sector, maximising farmer profits, reducing losses, reducing the economic and social burden of foodborne disease. The present study is an attempt to highlight the current milk safety issues in Indian context and the necessary pathways to address them.

Through initial review and field visits it is realised that most of the focus of dairy development is only on increasing production and quality aspects are not given much credit. Also, the dairy sector in India is highly variable ranging from small unorganised herds to highly automated dairy farms. The lack of any methodology makes it a difficult task to do comparative evaluation of different dairy systems, as the basic indicators like total milk production and per capita milk availability do not provide the true insight. So a new dairy index is attempted that explicitly considers both production and quality. The study indicated that the ranking of states vary significantly if the milk quality issues are considered for the assessment. Also, the prime focus of the Food Safety authorities is limited to the detection of adulterants. Based on the available literature regarding the potential health hazards, and evaluation of the FSSAI and CODEX standards, a new classification for quality control is proposed for evaluating the quality of milk in India. The present study evaluates the prevailing conditions and applies the proposed template in the context of Andaman and Nicobar Islands as a case study. There is no comprehensive data and studies available for this region.

The assessment of milk security in A&N Islands is done on the pillars of food security  as defined by FAO to evaluate availability, accessibility, utilisation and stability, and included total milk production, per-capita milk availability and prevailing prices as the key indicators to characterize the situation in A&N islands. The review of the quality control mechanisms for dairy in A&N Islands is done by retrospective audit to collect primary data and test reports on food safety analysis of milk samples as conducted in the State Food Safety Laboratory, Port Blair. In the current study, evaluation of farmers was undertaken through a cross-sectional study to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of the farmers towards the cattle breeds, potential of zoonosis and the milk hygiene practices. The survey was conducted in total of 300 farmers in all three districts of the Andaman and Nicobar islands at the rate of 100 farmers/district.

The study found that the average herd size is 1.9 with about 26.9% of the animals rearing desi (non-descriptive) cattle characterised by low production levels of 3.95 litres/day. The assessment on the pillars of food security found that with the present population load there is annual deficit of 25673.7 MT of fluid milk in A&N Islands. The genotyping of the cattle for A1 vs A2 allele for 361 blood samples revelated the gene frequency for A1 and A2 allele in the sample population is 16.48 and 83.52, respectively. The results were discussed in context of present livestock breeding policy to develop the potential techniques to achieve the transformation of existing herds back to favoured A2A2 genotype. With the evaluation of 300 milk samples for antibiotic residues and aflatoxin residues. None of them was positive for antibiotic (tetracycline and aminoglycoside) residues. However, 4% of the milk samples were found positive for the aflatoxin residues above the permitted MRL. The results of the study provides a snapshot and probably the first picture of the present status of KAP/dairy hygiene practices in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The study shows that the awareness regarding the clean milk production, antimicrobial residues, withdrawal timings, aflatoxins, etc. is poor/highly limited among the farmers of the region. The increased knowledge about the hygienic practices, zoonosis and preventive ways may not only reduce the risk of infections entering the herd but may also ensure better production. We conclude that there are multiple factors that govern the quality of milk in India and therefore, improvement will also be needed across sectors to achieve milk security. Although the national milk production is reported to be above the recommended value by different agencies, the regional insecurities are still existing from a Food Security perspective.

The output may act as a referral study and template for future studies for assessment of product specific food security. The overall estimation of self-sufficiency on the basis of total milk production and the per capita milk availability only, the two widely used indices may not be highlighting the true picture from consumer safety and public health significance of such a widely important food commodity. The findings highlight the limitations of the present approach and the need for additional data, using a wider range of research techniques. To conclude, there are multiple factors that govern the quality of milk in India and therefore, improvement will be needed across sectors to achieve milk safety, an important component to ensure overall Food Security. Whilst not definitive, it aims to highlight those factors which are considered crucial to an understanding of contemporary milk safety controls. It is hoped that this results in a deeper understanding of the risks in dairy. The food control measures may require legislative measures where suitable, but farmers and consumers must also remain vigilant and literate. The study concludes that intimate collaboration between all the stakeholders is required for a safer supply chain and ensuring "health for all".

Event Date: 
Monday, October 3, 2022 - 17:00 to 19:30