Mother Dairy Calcutta launches milk fortification project

Kolkata: In a bid to improve and enrich its product, Mother Dairy Calcutta launched its Milk Fortification Project on Thursday.

"For the first time, Mother Dairy Calcutta has started fortification of milk with Vitamin A and D. We were able to start this project under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee," said Swapan Debnath, Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and Textiles, while unveiling the project at Mother Dairy Calcutta's Dankuni unit.

Mother Dairy Calcutta, associated with National Dairy Development Board, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and TATA Trust, launched the project in presence of various dignitaries. Small packets of fortified milk were distributed among school children.

"This project aims at providing enrichment, adding micronutrients such as Vitamin A and D into processed milk as food supplements, to eradicate night-blindness and malnutrition," said Susmita Mukherjee, chief general manager of Mother Dairy Calcutta.

According to a survey conducted by the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau, Vitamin D and A deficiency is common among children and adults in India, with lack of physical activity and limited exposure to sunlight being the main reasons.

Mother Dairy Calcutta sells a wide range of products including various types of milk, butter milk, yoghurts, paneer, mango pudding and ice cream.

At present, Mother Dairy Calcutta sells around 2.15 lakh litres of milk along with 6,000 kgs of milk products per day from the Dankuni unit and from other satellite milk plants in the state.

To cater to the people of North Bengal, Mother Dairy Calcutta has started production and distribution of milk at its Matigara unit in Siliguri.