The conference had personalities from the industry and Ecolab to share their views on the topic. The chief guest for the conference was Rahul Srivastava, managing director, Amul Dairy.
The welcome presentation was delivered by Ron Pringle, general manager and vice-president, Ecolab India. He said, “This is the beginning of a platform for new ideas and experiences to be shared with each other, and this conference will create an open platform where dairy industry members can come together and share their views on food safety and hygiene in the dairy industry. We have an exciting day ahead and speakers with good amount of experience in this field.”
In his presentation titled, 'Food safety and hygiene in dairy industry', Srivastava said, “I would like to congratulate Ecolab and Vidya Dairy for organising this conference. Food safety and hygiene is the heart of the dairy industry. Indian dairy is unique in the world. Currently, India produces roughly 121 million metric tonnes of dairy products. There are about 90 million farmers in the dairy business, and 30 million cattle. About 28-29 per cent of milk is processed in India; 50 per cent of it is processed by the co-operative organisations, and the rest by private players.”
Sham Chaudhary, former general manager (quality), Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), spoke about hygiene and food safety concerns in a dairy plant and good manufacturing practices (GMP) in the dairy industry. He also commented on the hygienic conditions of urinals and toilets in the dairy plants, saying that the urinals and toilets are most neglected areas in offices, factories, public places, etc. in India.
“Functioning urinals and toilets should be free from leakages and there should not be rusted plumbing. They should have working high-capacity exhaust fans with covering nets, which should be free from dust and dirt to remove the odour. And there should be a proper dustbin and toilet cabins should not be locked,” he said.
B P Rao, general manager, GEA India, spoke on the significance of cleaning solutions from an equipment perspective. He described the water consumption pattern for a typical milk plant, stating that about 27 per cent of the steam is used in processing, and 73 per cent steam is used in cleaning.
He also said, “Good manufacturing depends on various points like – (a) conventional (viz. man, machine and material); and (b) the need of the day, which includes hygiene efficiency, environment, cleanability, etc.”
Peter Gatchell, technical specialist, dairy, Ecolab New Zealand, spoke about the company's best practices in the dairy industry, and the operational efficiencies and CIP in dairy industry.
He commented on the prevalent trends in the dairy industry, and highlighted the need for increased productivity; higher milk volume; longer run time, and reduced CIP cycle time.
Albert Lee, application manager, Ecolab Asia, spoke on improving productivity and operational efficiency with sustainable cleaning and sanitation programs.
A sustainable future
Being sustainable is inevitable, but it is important to minimise energy, water and detergent, and strive to improve productivity. Lee also mentioned reducing the use of energy water and chemicals.
Anil Kumawat, business manager, Ecolab India, made a presentation on making difference with specialty hygiene solutions. Vivek Nair, industry technical consultant, NALCO (an Ecolab company), spoke about the water-related challenges in the dairy industry, in which he mentioned about product quality, operational efficiency and sustainability.
