To fight malnutrition, Mother Dairy plans to fortify all milk range by year-end

To tackle the growing problem of malnutrition in Delhi and NCR, leading milk supplier Mother Dairy plans to sell milk fortified with Vitamin 'A' and 'D' in thenational capital, its top official said on Monday.

Mother Dairy sells about 30 lakh litres of milk per day,including token and poly-packed, in the Delhi-NCR and this entire quantity would be now fortified with Vitamin A&D. The company has about 800 milk booths and 400 'Safal' retail stores in the NCR.

"We are already adding Vitamin A in our token milk sold at milk booths. Now, We have decided to add Vitamin A & D in both token milk and poly-packed," Mother Dairy Managing Director S Nagarajan, informed. "By end of this year, we will be selling only fortifiedmilk in Delhi-NCR," he added. Nagarajan said the company is taking this initiative asa large part of population is having deficiency ofmicro-nutrients. Asked about the cost of fortification of milk with VitaminA&D, he said it would be around 25 paise per litre and the same would be absorbed by the company.

Nagarajan said the company would follow the standardsfixed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India(FSSAI) on fortification of food. FSSAI has developed comprehensive standards forfortification in wheat flour, rice, edible oil, salt and milk. The regulator has made these standards operational at thedraft stage only and would issue final notification aftermaking changes based on suggestions from stakeholders.

As per this standards, fortification of salt can be donewith iodine and iron, while vegetable oil and milk can befortified with Vitamin A & D; wheat flour and rice with iron,folic acid, zinc, vitamin B12, vitamin A and some othermicro-nutrients. Mother Dairy was commissioned in 1974 as a wholly- ownedsubsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).

The company sells milk and dairy products including icecreams, paneer and ghee under the 'Mother Dairy' brand. It isinto edible oil business under Dhara brand. Moreover, it sellsfrozen vegetables, unpolished pulses and other processed foodsunder the 'Safal' brand.