Fortified milk needed to address health issues: minister

West Assam Milk Producers' Cooperative Union Limited, popularly known as 'Purabi', has decided to fortify its Smart Milk (toned milk) with vitamins A and D to eradicate micro-nutrient malnutrition.
"There is an urgent need to fortify milk to address various health related issues and the Assam government will give full support for its successful implementation," Minister for Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Atul Bora said launching the new packets of the fortified Purabi Milk today
The fortification by WAMUL has been also initiated to support the nation-wide fortification initiative of FSSAI and Tata Trusts and now its fortified milk will be available in a new blue pack with FSSAI's "+F" logo.

Since milk is consumed by all population groups, fortification of milk with certain micro-nutrients is a good strategy to address micronutrient malnutrition, Bora said.
It is very much essential for overall growth of a human body", Tata Trust Director of Nutrition Programme Dr Rajan Shankar said.
As a part of its nationwide campaign, Tata Trusts are intensifying work on improving maternal and infant nutrition besides large-scale food fortification, aiming to reduce incidence of malnutrition by 25 per cent in the five states of country in the next five years, he said.

The trusts are currently carrying out various programmes in Andhra Pradesh, UP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tripura in co-operation with the state governments.

The FSSAI has recommended fortification of milk with Vitamin A-770 IU per litre and Vitamin D-550 IU per litre and these recommendations have been endorsed by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).
India is the largest producer of milk in the world with 146.3 million tonnes of production and per capita availability of 322 grams per day.
WAMUL procures milk from nearly 200 village-based milk producer institutions (MPIs) and dairy cooperative societies (DCS) in the districts of Kamrup, Morigaon, Nagaon, Barpeta and Nalbari covering around 5,000 dairy farmers.
With more and more quality and health conscious consumers preferring packed parsteurised milk, Purabi has crossed a daily average sales of over 55,000 litres of packed liquid milk in the markets of Guwahati and towns like Jorhat, Nalbari, Rangia, Nagaon, Tezpur, etc.

The new fortified Smart Milk will be available from tomorrow, coinciding with the World Milk Day, in all stores.