Overview of Indian Dairy Industry
Pravin Sawale & Hitesh Kumar
Dairy Technology Division,
National Dairy Research institute, Karnal-132001, India
The dairy industry in India has been on a sturdy path of progression since Indian independence. The milk production of India has grown from 17 million tonnes (1951) to 127 million tonnes (2012) and expected to increase upto 190 million tonnes, worths 0.05 Lakh Billion by the year 2015. Today, India is the world’s largest milk producer; accounting for more than 17% of the world’s total milk production. Still the per capita milk consumption is around 276 g per day. India has the largest cattle (185.2 million, 2.1 kg dairy yield/animal and contributed 38% of total milk production) and buffalo population (97.9 million, 2.6 kg dairy yield/ animal and contributed 54% of total milk production) total population in the world. Out of all bovine population in India, 40 percent are indigenous cows, 46 percent are buffaloes and 14 percent are imported European or North American cattle crossbreeds (6.9 kg daily yield/ animal). More than 67 percent of dairy animals are owned by marginal and small farmers. Interestingly, buffalo milk accounts for the largest share of the total milk produced in the country. The pricing policies totally based on fat contains, hence buffalo milk offers higher profit margins as compared to cow milk.
Milk production is growing 7% by volume and app. 5% by value. This progress is primarily attributed to structural changes in the Indian dairy industry (IDI) brought about by the advent of dairy cooperatives. A market size of IDI was USD 48.5 billion in 2011. With a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16 percent, India represents one of the world’s most lucrative dairy markets. IMARC Group, one of the world’s leading research and advisory firms, finds in its new report entitled “Indian Dairy Market Report & Forecasts 2012-2017” that driven by a strong growth in both urban and rural demands, the market for milk products in India is expected to surpass US$ 163 Billion by 2017. The market size of milk and milk products (organized and non organized) is estimated about INR 0.036 Lakh Billion. The organized sector dairy market is growing 10% annually. About 50% of total milk produced in India is converted into Traditional Indian Dairy Products (TIDP).
The consumptions pattern of dairy products in India is chiefly skewed towards traditional products; however, westernized products are gradually gaining momentum in the urban areas. The percentage consumption pattern of different milk products in India are as follows; 1 liquid milk consumption accounts for 45.7% of total milk output, while 39% is converted into ghee and butter, 6.9% into dahi, 6.5% into khoa and similar milk sweet, 3.7% into milk powder including infant milk food, 1.9% into paneer, chhana and cheese, 0.6% into ice cream and khulfi, 0.2% into cream-0.2% and others dairy products absorbing the remaining 0.5%.
Despite India being one of the largest milk producing country in the world, India had neither been on the radar screen of many international dairy companies nor involved in major exports of dairy products till about the year 2000. In the 70’s, milk powder and butter oil paved the path for India in the international market. From 2000 onwards, milk powder, casein, whey products and ghee from Indian have started making their presence felt in global markets. Bangladesh, UAE, US, and Philippines are the major importer country of Indian dairy products. Indigenous milk products and desserts are becoming popular with the ethnic population spread all over the world. Therefore, the export demand for these has gone up tremendously, thus providing great potential for export. Ghee has been a regular export item from India since the 1930’s. Presently, Ghee has been exported to Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Middle East countries and a modest quantity to North America, New Zealand, and South Africa to serve the ethnic market.
Structure of Indian dairy Industry
In India, Operation Flood (since 1970) introduced co-operatives into the dairy sector with the objectives of increasing milk production, augmenting rural income, and providing fair prices for consumers. The village milk producer’s co-operative (a voluntary association of milk producers in a village who wish to market their milk) is the fundamental unit in the cooperative system. Every milk producer can become a member of the co-operative society by buying a share and committing to sell milk only to the society. Each producer’s milk is getting money on the basis of quality of milk (fat and solids-not-fat percentage). In addition to milk collection, the societies are also provided other services such as cattle feed, artificial insemination (AI), and veterinary services. Village milk producers’ co-operatives in a district are members of their district co-operative milk-producers’ union. The Union processes buys milk from the all societies and then markets fluid milk and products. Most Unions also provide a range of inputs and services to the village societies—feed, veterinary services, artificial insemination, and other services—and have milk-processing plants to convert seasonal surpluses of liquid milk into milk powder and other conserved products. This allows the Union to ensure better returns to its members. (Rajendran et al., 2004)
Popular Indian Dairy Products
India is the highest producer of buffalo milk in the world. Buffalo milk is not suited for manufacture of certain western dairy product due to its certain limitation. But in India, it is particularly appropriate for producing certain dairy products, viz. mozzarella cheese, feta cheese, domiati cheese, paneer, khoa and ghee etc. Pizza has become an international dish for which Mozzarella cheese is an essential ingredient. Middle East provides an enormous scope for specialty dairy products.
Dahi
Dahi (resembles yoghurt) is a fermented dairy product from fermentation of cow or buffalo or mixture of milk by using suitable lactic acid bacteria (LAB). It is consumed in different form such as sweetened, blended with spices, salted, beverage “lassi”. Its therapeutic value has been described in the Ayurveda (Indian System of Medicine) literature from around 600AD. At commercial scale mixed starter cultures of lactic acid bacteria such as Streptococcus lactis, S. diacetylactis, S. cremoris in single or in combination with or without Leuconostoc species along with Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. bulgaricus, and S. thermophilus are used for dahi preparation (Kale et al., 2011), whereas at small scale production old dahi is used as starter to initiate the lactic fermentation in cool boiled fresh milk.
Dahi is a good vehicle for maintaining the beneficial bacterial population in the human gut. Addition of probiotic bacteria such as Bifidobacterium longum, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium infantis, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus along with starter induce additional therapeutic effect on consumer health such as anticancer effect, immune modulation effect, antibacterial, anti-diarrhea effect (Panesar, 2011).
Buttermilk
Buttermilk is a byproduct of Indian dairy industry which is obtained by churning of dahi. During the preparation, dahi is churned continuously until butter is not formed on the surface. The aqueous phase remaining after removing butter is called buttermilk. It consists components of milk such as protein, lactose, and minerals. Buttermilk also consist milk fat globule membrane rich in phospholipids especially phosphotidylcholine (lecithin), phosphatidylethanolamine, and sphingomyelin, provides additional health benefits.
Shrikhand
Shrikhand is a semi soft, sweetish sour, whole milk product prepared from lactic fermented curd. The dahi is partially strained through a cloth to remove the whey and thus produce a solid mass called chakka (the basic ingredient for shrikhand). Furthermore, this chakka is blend with the required amount of sugar and flavor for obtaining shrikhand.
Ghee
Ghee is synonymous to clarified butter chiefly prepared from cow and buffalo milk It is generally prepared by heating cream or butter to above 100oC. Heating is responsible for development a typical kind of ghee flavour and loss in its water content. According to Ayurveda, ghee prepared from cow milk has health promoting effects. Ghee consist 98% glycerides and 0.3% moisture. In addition, it also consist of free fatty acids, phospholipids, sterols, sterol esters, fat soluble vitamins, carbonyls, hydrocarbons. Traditionally, ghee is prepared from butter (also known as Makkan) recovered after churning of dahi. To improve flavor and health promoting properties of ghee, the various kind of spices such as Cinnamon, Ginger, Cardamom and herbs such as Lavender, Marjoram, Rosemary, Sage, Thyme now been added into the ghee.
Paneer
Paneer is a famous traditional Indian dairy product analogous to fresh cheese like Queso blanco or Queso fresco and used in many recipes. It is a coagulated product prepared by coagulation of particularly buffalo milk with acid like lactic ,or citric or sour milk and pressing the curd in a muslin cloth to drain the excess whey (Masud et al., 2007). About 5% milk of total milk production in India is converted into paneer. it contains about 70% moisture, 15% milk fat and 15% milk protein. Particularly, buffalo milk is preferred for manufacture of paneer due to its rich in milk nutrients as compare to cow or goat milk.
Chhana
Chhana is also a heat acid coagulated product. It differ from paneer as no pressure is applies to drain the whey and its pH is slightly higher. Chhana is used as a base for a large variety of Indian delicacies namely Chhana gaja, sandesh, cham cham, rasmalai, patoha, raj bhog, chhana murki etc. It is also a heat acid coagulated product.Cow milk is better suited for chhana making because it produces chhana with soft body and smooth texture which is better for sweets. Rasogolla is the most common chhanna-based sweet. It is prepared using fresh and soft-chhanna. It is in the form of balls 30 mm in diameter with a typical spongy body and smooth texture. It is stored and served in sugar syrup.
Khoa
Khoa is a type of heat desiccated milk product obtained from cow, buffalo or mixed milk by thermal evaporation of milk in an open pan with continuous stirring. It is used for making different types of sweets. Buffalo milk is preferred for preparation of khoa since it gives better yield. Buffalo milk khoa is white in color, smooth textured and granulated which makes it highly suitable for preparation of top-quality sweets. There are three kind of khoa; pindi, dhap and danedar (Dodeja et al., 2012). Final product should not have less than 20% fat on dry matter. A better quality of khoa is obtained from cow milk by additions of 5 % whey protein concentrates into it.
Peda is a sweetened dried granulated khoa based product which is prepared by heating mixture of milk and sugar with constant stirring till solid texture is not obtained and then made a small balls of 25-25g sized. There are different types of pedas available such as saffron peda, plain peda, brown peda (Raju et al., 2006). It has a characteristic light brown color due to caramelization of sugar.
Burfi is another popular khoa based confection. It is prepared by blending a pindi type of khoa with sugar syrup . The ingredients are kneaded together at 50ºC in a tray and allowed to set, followed by cutting into square pieces (Raju et al., 2006). Different types of burfies are prepared by addition of different additives such as pista, almond, coconut etc.
Gulabjamun is soft, sweet, granulated, slightly spongy, brown spherical milk based product. Generally, it is prepared by blending of dhap khoa, wheat flour and baking powder then kneaded and spherical balls are made which further fried in oil and finally dipped into sugar syrup.
Kheer
Basundi/kheer (In USA and Europe is called as rice pudding) is an Indian dessert and a heat desiccated sweetened, concentrated milk product obtained by the partial dehydration of whole milk together with sugar and usually rice (occasionally semolina). It has a creamy consistency and color, sweet taste with nutty and cooked flavor and soft textured. Whole milk is heat condensed by using periodically stirring up to its half volume then sugar is added (@5%. The heating is continued until the desired consistency is reached. Finally, it packed and store under refrigeration. Additives such as cardamom, saffron and edible camphor are added to improve flavor of kheer (Sharma et al., 2009).
Kulfi
It is a popular Indian frozen dessert made from concentrated sweetened milk with or without added nuts and flavor and is known for its refreshing and delightfully sweet characteristics.
References
Dodeja, A. K., & Deep, A. (2012). Mechanized Manufacture of Danedar Khoa using Thr ee Stage S Three. Indian Journal of Dairy Science, 65(July), 274–284.
Kale, A. K., Dhanalakshmi, B., & Kumar, U. (2011). Development of Value Added Dahi by Incorporating Cereal and Fruits. Journal of Food Science and Engineering, 1, 379–385.
Masud, T., Shehla, S., & Khurram, M. (2007). Paneer ( white cheese ) from buffalo milk. Biotechnology & biotechnological equipment, 451–452.
PFA. (2010). Prevention of food adultration rules, 1954 (amended up to 2009). Universal Law Publishing Company Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, pp 165–166
Panesar, P. S. (2011). Fermented Dairy Products: Starter Cultures and Potential Nutritional Benefits. Food and Nutrition Sciences, 02(01), 47–51. doi:10.4236/fns.2011.21006
Rajendran K. and Mohanty S Dairy (2004) Co-operatives and Milk Marketing in India: Constraints and Opportunities. Journal of Food Distribution Research 35(2), 201-210
Raju, D. P., & Narender, P. (2006). Developments in the manufacture of heat desiccated traditional milk desserts. Developments in Traditional Dairy products, 18–25.
Sharma, P., Singh, R. R. B., Singh, a. K., Patel, a. a., & Patil, G. R. (2009). Sorption isotherms and thermodynamics of water sorption of ready-to-use Basundi mix. LWT – Food Science and Technology, 42(1), 441–445. doi:10.1016/j.lwt.2008.04.010
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