Hygiene and quality is increasingly becoming a common concern for milk and milk products which is consumed by all age groups. 70% of the milk production pertains to unorganized sector. India being the largest producer of Milk at 146.3 million tonnes/day demands specified guidelines for the segment when it comes to health. The focus of the unorganized sector is more on commercial aspect than the hygiene and health issue which leads to use of unfavorable materials for processing and storage. Various research reports emphasize that use of hazardous materials in dairy industry have serious impact on public health as few materials lead to food contamination. Stainless Steel has emerged as an alternate material for various usages in the dairy sector and approximately 8000-10,000MT of Stainless Steel is used for storage, processing and transportation equipments every year in India. CODEX, the international food standards under WHO, has also recommended stainless steel as a preferred material for storage of food and transportation. CODEX is a collection of internationally recognized standards, codes of practice, guidelines, and other recommendations relating to foods, food production, and food safety.
Commenting on this occasion, Mr. K.K Pahuja, President, ISSDA, “Research demonstrates that compared to other materials, Stainless Steel is the most hygienic and biologically suitable material for milk processing and storage. Due to increased focus on hygiene, quality and food safety standards, usage of stainless steel has grown. Our effort is to increase the pace of adoption of stainless steel in this area to ensure a better public health.”
Dr. G S Rajorhia, Vice President, Indian Dairy Association said, “Stainless Steel is an integral part of dairy industry. Its erosion and corrosion free characteristic is recognized by the dairy industry for total food safety and public health.”
Mr. Ashok Gupta, Director, Jindal Stainless (Hisar) Limited said “We appreciate the efforts taken by regulators to ensure quality standards and with the new guidelines issued by BIS for milk cans , the scenario will change in the dairy sector as well. Taking a cue from these efforts, we, at Jindal stainless along with can producers, have developed a low cost prototype (204 Cu- food grade approved) of Stainless Steel milk can which is not only better in quality but also low cost. As 204Cu is already approved as food grade by BIS under IS 15997(Grade N2), we believe that it can deliver high quality milk at an affordable cost to the end customer."