A target to be self sufficient in liquid milk

Sarath Wijesinghe

MILK: Powdered milk is a powder made from dried (dehydrated) milk solids. Powdered milk has a far longer shelf life than liquid milk and does not need to be refrigerated due to its low moisture content.

Powdered milk was first made in 1802 by Russian Doctor Osip Krichevsky. It is found abundantly in many developing countries because of the transport and storage costs as it does not require refrigeration.

It is used by survivalists, hikers and others in need of non-perishable easy to prepare food stuff. But in the Western world milk is used and drinks as liquid milk and not in the form of powdered milk. In the European countries when you shop in a Super Market liquid milk is found in abundance.

Even in a corner shop in remote area in the United Kingdom or the European Community the fresh milk is

 available either in fresh form or sterilized form to be used as fresh milk. The powdered milk that we use in our country is used in the West and many other countries as sweetness - just to drink with tea and not as milk the way we consume milk powder in mass scale.

It is doubtful whether we drink real milk by way of powdered milk because powdered milk is made by spray drying non fat skim milk pasteurised milk is first concentrated in an evaporator to about 50% of milk solids.

The result in concentrated milk sprayed into a heated chamber where the water almost instantly evaporated leaving behind fine particles of powdered solids. Alternatively, the milk can be drum dried. In the factory there is a possibility to animal fat being removed and extracted.

The factory can introduce, foreign and value added matters- for example vegetable fat and vitamins. In many products the labels indicate the presence of fat and not the kind of fat, thereby consumer is not provided with correct data.

It is his right to know what he purchases from the shop. These are moot questions and complicated issues to be resolved by the CAA and SLSI, which are statutory bodies to ascertain the standards of consumer goods in Sri Lanka.

One leading milk powder producer has printed the ingredients of the contents of the milk powder in the packet as: Energy, Protein, Carbohydrate, Fat, Vitamin A, B, C. Calcium, Sodium, Magnesium.

This Company has carefully used the word “only fat” and not the word milk fat or animal fat. There is a doubt whether the actual fat in the Powdered Milk advertised is that of the fat extracted from the milk or not. This is a suppression of vital information which amounts to misleading.

This also shows that in the factory many foreign bodies could be added and there is no moral right for the company to say that, that they produce genuine cow milk. Therefore those who agitate and promote powdered milk must think and rethink of going back to live with the nature and consume liquid milk for long life for themselves and the future generation.

But the reality is that the facilities of testing milk and similar food items are very complicated and expensive. One test of this nature may cost a consumer or the CAA in the range of Rs 80,000 per test and not affordable to neither party. At the same time the producers add various other vitamins and foreign bodies in the factory which may not be required to consumers.

For example: for children, the aged consumers, the foreign bodies and vitamins added and introduced may be in excess harmful or not required at all. These and the incorrect advertisements mislead the masses for which CAA will be taking steps in due course. These are matters that should be addressed by medical and consumer groups with the backing and assistance of the CAA and the SLSI.

Compared to fresh milk, powdered milk is stated to be exceptionally high in Oxyesterol (Oxidized Cholesterol). Powdered milk is used in baking and in recipes where adding liquid milk would render the product too thin to be used.

It is also a common sight in UN Food Aid supplies warehouses and wherever fresh milk is not a viable option. The common usage of milk powder is convenience. On the other hand it is difficult to preserve, store and transport liquid milk which is an expensive and cumbersome procedure.

But the fact remains that the best option for the consumer is liquid milk in the natural form. Milk is an opaque white liquid produced by memory plans of female mammals. It provides primary source of nutrition for newborns before they are able to digest other types of food.

The term milk also used for whitish non animal substitutes such as soy milk, rice milk, almond milk and coconut milk which bears little resemblances to mammalian milk.

Cow’s milk was first used as human food in the Middle East. Goats and Sheep were domesticated in the Middle East between 9,000 and 8,000 BC. We need 750,000 ml of milk in Sri Lanka out of which we produce only 200,000 ml. The consumers consume powdered milk as an alternative to fresh milk genuinely assuming and presuming that they drink real animal milk.

We need at least 500,000 cows for us to be self sufficient in milk out of which we have only 350,000 where the milking capacity is very low when compared to other parts of the world.

When other countries try to improve the dairy industry in order to supply fresh milk to the nation and the children, we slaughter at least 5,000 cows per day and we do not use neither traditional nor modern techniques to improve the dairy industry, except for the attempts made by the Government and handful of private companies and organisations.

The amount of money we spend on milk food for a year is alarming. The statistics of imports are shown here.

Milk powder is mostly imported from Australia and New Zealand to our country. There are multi national companies engaged in dairy industry and milk powder production. There is a very sad story behind the introduction of powdered milk to our nation.

At one time we were self sufficient in milk. The multi national companies gradually and surreptitiously changed our consumption habits of the “Nation” by offering milk food at a very competitive price so that the farmers were compelled to close the dairy and sell the cows.

The change of food habits also led to the production of our cattle where some time back it was with utmost reluctance that the villager sold his cow for slaughter. The cow, treated as second mother was used for milking and the bull to pull the cart and in the paddy field. Killing cattle for meat is unacceptable. Now the values have changed, we are now meat and beef eating nation.

Recently there are protests and agitations regarding the increase of milk to unbearable levels. It is true that the prices of liquid milk and powdered milk have gone up drastically. Two decades ago Sri Lanka was a country where fresh milk was freely available at an affordable price.

In 1981 under the policy of liberalisation and privatisation the government took decision to close the national milk board and signed an agreement with a multinational company, to develop the dairy industry.

After 20 years there is no fresh milk available in the market, the entire milk food sector is in the hands of just two or three large companies which market only milk powders imported from the West.

Apparently the government at that time has expected the “jackal to give protection to the hare!” Anyway today the nation is facing the consequences of ill conceived policies and also not taking steps for the improvement of the local and traditional dairy industry.

The government is obliged to pave the way for the nation for healthy food of high standard at a reasonable price. To meet this target the government has offered number of tariffs, concessions, duty and VAT reduction to the machineries used in the milk industry.

At the same time the Minister of Trade has declared milk powder as an essential item under Section 18 of the CAA Act No 9 of 2003 whereby any producer manufacturer or trader is bound to obtain permission from the CAA to any price adjustments. But at the same time CAA is bound to consider all the circumstances including the world prices in ascertaining the price of powdered milk.

As a result of various outside factors outside the control of Sri Lanka, such as drought, fluctuation of Dollar has caused drastic price increase of milk food to the world market. With the dairy industry every reliance on the access irrigation water in key regions such as Southern Victoria in Australia drought has seriously reduced the milk production.

The drought currently gripping much of Australia adversely affected pasture availability. Virtually all of the countries key dairying regions prices of milk powder has risen rocket high.

The key imports of milk powder to Sri Lanka are from New Zealand and Australia and consequently prices of milk powder is going up. It is the duty of the CAA to be conscious on the realities in computing the adjustment of prices based on applications received.

Though it is the primary duty to protect the consumers, the CAA has the duty to maintain the balance and the impartial regulators to regulate business under Chapter II of the CAA Act. It is a sorry state that the prices are going up but the only alternative available for us to check this is to improve our dairy industry and liquid milk production which is the need of the hour.

Rather than criticising the government and find fault of multi national companies it is time for the activists groups and the general public to be mindful of this factual situation and to do whatever possible in steps taken by government and non governmental organisations in Sri Lanka.

It is a very encouraging situation that Minister C. B. Ratnayake and the National Livestock Development Board under him are taking drastic and meaningful steps in the field of popularisation of liquid milk and to take all appropriate steps by increasing the cattle breeding and dairy industry. The schedule, statistics and the information shown will give an understanding on the monthly average consumption.

There are many other practical aspects to be looked into in this regard. Liquid milk contains 80% of water and about 3.8% fat with the life span only few hours. Therefore either the people must have facilities to keep milk safe or to prepare long life and also to provide facilities for quick transport for the consumers.

The milk that is produced in certain provinces in Sri Lanka is to be transported to the factory for drying instead of providing facilities for quick distribution for consumption. The other sorry state is the eating and drinking habits of the consumers.

In some milk producing villages while milk that is being produced is been collected by the Milk Company, the villagers are used to consume milk sweeteners imported by multi national for their consumption.

This is the sad reality and truth where this writer has observed in some villages in the upcountry. Our activist groups have a major role to play in this field to guide the nation towards liquid milk drinking nation instead of merely criticising the government for every step taken.

There is pasteurisation and production UHT long life. Long life milk is very popular in the West. It is time that we too introduce long life in large scale which does not need refrigeration. There is awareness of developments like Embryo transplant and artificial insemination and proper animal husbandry practices.

There is good news that in Sri Lanka Dr Chandrawansa Pathiraja, the Chairman of the National Livestock Dev Board too has developed a process and procedure on the Indian model to follow the scientific advances. There is lot of competition in Indian business in which their motto is “Failure is never final and success never ending”.

The industry in India has attracted larger number of entrepreneurs. It is time for our entrepreneurs too to be active in driving our nation toward liquid milk drinking nation in the interest of our future and present generation.

China too has a success story where growth in the demand for whole milk has increased in China drifting away from milk powder. In the EU despite the consumption of fresh milk in cheese and other products the liquid milk industry is booming.

The decision is in our hands to change our values, food patterns and to be practical and realistic in the interest of our future generation. There is no magic to bring down the prices of imported milk powder which may not necessarily be genuine milk powder. The only alternative left with us is to improve our own dairy industry.

We notice with pleasure the steps are being taken to import the cattle from hot spots in the world. It is time that we follow our SAARC colleagues and China, in the struggle to be a generation of liquid milk drinking nation in the interest of the future generation.

The writer is Solicitor in England and Wales, Attorney At Law, Chairman Consumer Affairs Authority and Convener Committee for International Law and International Relations - [email protected]