Conducts webinar on managing hygiene & safety in dairy processing during COVID-19 pandemic
National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) conducted a webinar (NDDB SAMVAD) on Managing Hygiene & Safety in Dairy Processing during COVID-19 pandemic recently.
The aim was to bring together eminent personalities from dairy industry, academia and policy makers to address the immediate concerns, discuss on ways to handle prevalent challenges and identify opportunities during this pandemic. It was also intended to instil confidence in dairy farmers, processors and consumers that post COVID 19 we will definitely evolve stronger.
The panellists included Meenesh Shah, Executive Director, NDDB; Dr J B Prajapati, Principal & Dean SMC College of Dairy Science, Anand and Amit Vyas, Managing Director, Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union (Amul Dairy).
Dilip Rath, Chairman, NDDB congratulated the dairy professionals for ensuring that millions of rural milk producers get incomes to meet their basic necessities while the consumers get milk and milk products to meet their nutritional requirements. He said that dairying is always there to ease farmers’ distress and will remain something consumers can count on.
Meenesh Shah said that the dairy sector needs to turn this crisis into an opportunity. There is a need for integrating learnings and developing systems at each stage in dairy value chain to manage the impacts of COVID 19. He expressed the importance of maintaining hygiene and sanitation practices starting from milk production at dairy farm, collection centres, transportation, and dairy processing units. Our aim should be to reinforce the consumers’ recognition that cooperative brands are synonymous with good quality.
Amit Vyas shared his experience on managing dairy operations during the pandemic. He explained how the latest technologies such as digital communications and digital contact less systems (Auto sanitizer, door controls, light controls, Contactless lifts etc.) can help in ensuring business continuity. Dr Prajapati conveyed that no food, including milk & milk products (including ice cream) are carrier of COVID-19 virus. Consumers should wash the outer side of the food pack to prevent infection.
Experts answered questions covering a wide array of aspects such as role of milk and milk products in building immunity, whether COVID-19 virus transmits from human to animals, impact of COVID-19 on new products launched by dairies, safety of sanitizers used, reduced payment to farmers, impact on market prices, measures to ensure efficient dairy plant operations in cases where milk procurement had gone down, government support available to dairy sector with respect to COVID-19 etc. With over 850 online participants, the webinar received a positive response.