Relax cow milk fat content norms in Punjab, Haryana: NDRI

Karnal-based National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) today pitched for relaxing the fat content standard in cow milk of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to 3.5 per cent.
It has been a long pending demand of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to review the cow milk standards to check the adulteration set by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
"We are demanding that the fat content in cow milk of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh should be set at 3.5 per cent as against 4 per cent at present," NDRI, Director, A K Srivastava told PTI here today.
"In surveys, we have found fat content in the range of 3 to 3.5 per cent in cow milk of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. Very little samples matched 4 per cent standard. Therefore, we demand that the milk standards for this part of area should be fixed at 3.5 per cent," he said.

As per FSSAI regulations, cow milk in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh should have 4 per cent fat content.
Interestingly, the fat content standard for the rest of the country is set at 3.5 per cent.

Srivastava, who is also Vice Chancellor of the country's prestigious research institute, pointed out that because of change in feed and cattle breed, it was now impossible to meet the old standards.
"Now fodder has changed, cross breed of cattle has increased in these states which is why it is not possible to meet 4 pc fat content standard," he said.
Notably, Punjab and Haryana which contribute 5.2 per cent of country's total bovine population, have crossbred dairy animals of 2.06 million and 0.99 million respectively.

The strength of cattle in Punjab and Haryana is 2.43 million and 1.81 million respectively.
Both states have share of 6.7 per cent in country's total bovine milk output of 80.53 million tonne.