Mother Dairy to sell only fortified milk in NCR by year-end

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Leading milk supplier Mother Dairy will only sell milk fortified with Vitamin 'A' and 'D' in the national capital region as part of its effort to address malnutrition, its top official said today.

Mother Dairy sells about 30 lakh litres of milk per day, including token and poly-packed, in the Delhi-NCR and this entire quantity would be now fortified with Vitamin A&D. The company has about 800 milk booths and 400 'Safal' retail stores in the NCR.

"We are already adding Vitamin A in our token milk sold at milk booths. Now, We have decided to add Vitamin A & D in both token milk and poly-packed," Mother Dairy Managing Director S Nagarajan told PTI.

"By end of this year, we will be selling only fortified milk in Delhi-NCR," he added.

Nagarajan said the company is taking this initiative as a large part of population is having deficiency of micro-nutrients.

Asked about the cost of fortification of milk with Vitamin A&D, he said it would be around 25 paise per litre and the same would be absorbed by the company.

Nagarajan said the company would follow the standards fixed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on fortification of food.

FSSAI has developed comprehensive standards for fortification in wheat flour, rice, edible oil, salt and milk.

The regulator has made these standards operational at the draft stage only and would issue final notification after making changes based on suggestions from stakeholders.

As per this standards, fortification of salt can be done with iodine and iron, while vegetable oil and milk can be fortified with Vitamin A & D; wheat flour and rice with iron, folic acid, zinc, vitamin B12, vitamin A and some other micro-nutrients.

Mother Dairy was commissioned in 1974 as a wholly- owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).

The company sells milk and dairy products including ice creams, paneer and ghee under the 'Mother Dairy' brand. It is into edible oil business under Dhara brand. Moreover, it sells frozen vegetables, unpolished pulses and other processed foods under the 'Safal' brand.