It was unveiled today by Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Hon'ble Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare at Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi.
The Minister also awarded certificates to 14 manufacturing companies for adopting food safety and quality management systems for milk and milk products and adhering to Quality Mark parameters.
Competitive edge
The minister said the Quality Mark will provide dairy cooperatives and producer institutions a brand identity and a competitive edge.
“This will also contribute to building consumer confidence in dairy cooperative brands," Minister Singh said.
The Quality Mark is aimed at bringing about improvement in the value chain from producer to consumer, to ensure availability of specific standard quality milk and products.
Management committee
He added an 11-member management committee will oversee the activities of the Quality Mark.
The committee members include a representative from India’s DAHDF Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries); managing directors of four federations representing the regions; a representative from the FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India); and two experts in dairying.
Dairy producers are able to apply for the Quality Mark on their products, subject to adopting food safety and quality management systems for their products.
Shri Sudarshan Bhagat, Hon'ble Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, said the operations of participating dairy companies will be monitored and validated.
Assessment procedure
The assessment is a two-step process involving pre-assessment and a final assessment.
The pre-assessment covers the village-level procurement and processing infrastructure availability, training manpower and retail sales.
Dairy facilities scoring more than 70% in the preliminary assessment are considered for final assessment.
Shri Dilip Rath, chairman, NDDB added the award of a Quality Mark is valid for three years, subject to maintenance of quality, food safety standards and compliance with terms and conditions of the agreement.
A surveillance audit for checking compliance will be held annually.
Areas for improvement
Since the roll-out of the initiative last year, the NDDB received 55 applications from cooperatives across India.
Of these, 14 units have so far successfully cleared the two-stage assessment process.
The remaining 31 dairies were informed about areas of improvement to meet the standard, and have been given from six to nine months to comply.