The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is planning a major digitisation initiative to track milk from its source to the supply chain, as the state looks to tackle recurring incidents of milk adulteration.
The proposed system will digitise milking records and link them to individual milch animals, allowing authorities to track milk production and monitor actual output more closely.
The initiative is currently at an early stage and will be rolled out after the project report for digitising milking records is completed, Maharashtra FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe told The Hindu.
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The planned end-to-end traceability system is aimed at giving authorities greater visibility into milk production and helping them identify discrepancies in the quantity of milk being produced and supplied.
The digitisation initiative comes against the backdrop of recurring concerns over milk adulteration in Maharashtra. By linking milking records with individual animals, the FDA intends to create a clearer trail of milk production that can be monitored by authorities.
Mundhe said the project is still in its nascent stage, with the rollout dependent on the completion of the project report.
“We have started a project to start a portal. All the milk collection centres will have to upload their data on that portal. The portal will be made, managed and monitored by the FDA."
"We will have access to this data and the data of the milch animals in that region which is uploaded on NDLM. This data will be available at the back-end. It won't be available to front-end users,” he said during an interview with the publication.
In the last few months, the Maharashtra FDA has taken a strong stand against the issue of milk adulteration and has banned the sale of junk food around schools and sale of analogue paneer in the State for a year.
The FDA has also carried out a large number of raids on restaurants, eateries, and caterers' outlets across the State. It has also expanded its testing capacity.
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"We will match the database from both these portals at the back-end. This data will not be available to the dairies or at the front end. This will help us understand and catch adulteration,” he said.
The FDA is currently in the process of preparing a project report for the digitisation bid. “The report will be submitted in a few months' time. But, for the project to go live will take some time. It will have to be developed, tested,” he added.
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