Milk is an amazing natural food item which is recognized over the globe as a perfect food. India is the second largest producer of cow milk and is the largest producer of goat and buffalo milk in the world. India produces 1662 lakh metric tonnes of milk annually. Such a huge quantity provokes the business community and attracting to invest in manufacturing milk and milk products. In the eastern part of the country if we go through the data of West Bengal alone there are 1,05,053 sweetmeat shops and each of the shops on an average requires 50 litres of milk everyday only for such an organised sector. Other than sweets there are several milk products obtained by processing of milk, which may contain food additives and other ingredients functionally necessary for the milk product as permitted in Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011
- cheese
- chhana, skimmed-milk chhana, paneer
- condensed milk-sweetened and unsweetened
- condensed skimmed milk-sweetened and unsweetened
- cream
- curd, skimmed milk curd, dahi
- ghee, butter oil
- ice-cream
- infant milk food
- khoa
- malai
- milk derivatives such as whey proteins, casein, lactose etc.
- milk ices, milk lollies, kulfi
- milk powder, skimmed milk powder, partly skimmed milk powder
- processed cheese
- table butter and white butter
- yogurt, and
- any other product as may be specified in Food Safety and Standards Regulations, 2011.
The essential compositions (particularly Fat and Solid-Not-Fat content) of different classes of milk have been specified in our mandatory Standard, based on Locality / State / Area-wise. This is as classified as the geographical conditions influence the health of the milch animals surviving in that particular geography.
As moon’s craters mar its beauty, the to same extent so be the case with the milk. In spite of having various beneficial nutrients, the milk or the dairy products can have an adverse effect on human health if consume indiscriminately.