Introduction
India, world's largest milk producer, accounting for more than 16% of world's total milk production, is the world's largest consumer of dairy products.
The total amount of milk produced has tripled from 23 million tonne back in 1973 to 95 million tonne in 2008. While, the country is expecting a production level of 135 million tonne by 2015, the projected demand for milk by 2021-22 is 180 million tonne which implies that milk production would have to be doubled. Milk production is growing at 3.3% while consumption is growing at 5% leaving a gap between demand and supply.
In order to meet the rapid growing demand and to increase the milk production, Union government has started a Central scheme National Dairy Plan – Phase 1, for a period of 2011-12 to 2016-17. This scheme will be implemented with a total investment of about Rs 2,242 crore. This scheme’s main objective is to help provide rural milk producers with greater access to the organised milk processing sector and thus to bridge the gap between the demand and supply of milk in the country.
The share of the total milk processing capacity by private sector is 44%of total installed capacity of 73 MLPD (Million Litre per Day) in the country. Therefore, the total share of the organised sector, both cooperatives as well as the private sector is barely 12%. What is, therefore, disquieting is that as much as 88% share of the total milk production is commanded by the unorganised sector. In order to promote dairy industry and attract more investment in this sector, government has also reduced the excise duty of 16% to zero on dairy processing machineries.
The untapped potential of the dairy sector is immense and opportunity to set up a new dairy venture is great. And there is vast potential for the export of dairy products, as the cost of milk production in India being the lowest. These factors are attracting huge amounts of investment in dairy processing, manufacturing dairy processing equipment, fruit packaging equipment and equipment for biotechnology related dairy industry.
According to a report by Investor Relations Society (IRS), the size of the Indian dairy industry in both organised and unorganised sectors is expected to double to $140 billion by 2020, on the back of growing demand and rising disposable income. The Indian dairy industry, currently pegged at $70 billion (organised and unorganised), is expected to double by 2020. The society is a global network of investor relations professionals. On the back of a rise in disposable income and strong demand for dairy products, the Indian dairy industry is all set to experience high growth rates in the next 5-6 years. While the dairy industry is growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15-17%, the value-added products alone are growing way beyond 24%, it said.
Milk is the country's biggest agricultural produce, contributing 22% to agricultural GDP. Growth in financials of existing domestic players, diversification into dairy sector by other companies, surge in private equity deals, entry of foreign firms in the segment are some of the broad indications that India's organised dairy industry will remain on growth path at least till 2020.
The operating margins in value-added products are almost two times liquid milk business, thanks to changing consumption pattern due to rapid urbanisation. The milk production alone is expected to cross 200 million tonne by 2016 from the current 125 million tonne.
According to NDDB database, milk production in India has been increased from 128 million tonne in 2011-12 to 132 million tonne in 2012-13, simultaneously per capita monthly consumption expenditure in milk and milk products has been increased from Rs 60 (Rural Area) and Rs 106 (Urban Area) in 2007 to Rs 80 (Rural Area) and Rs 139 (Urban Area) in 2010.
In global ecologic comparisons, milk and dairy intakes are strongly associated with adult height, and many international advisory bodies recommend the consumption of 400–500 ml milk equivalents per day. Soured milk would have invented itself as soon as humankind started milking animals.
The history of when specific lactose-digesting bacterial cultures were first used and intentionally propagated will never be known with certainty, but residues from ancient fragments of potsherds, apparently designed to act as strainers, have been dated as far back as 8,500 years ago. Such “domesticated” fermentative organisms serve the very useful dual purposes of partial lactose digestion and provision of ?-galactosidase (lactase), which continue to break down lactose after consumption. Both of these attributes would have assisted early humans in tolerating the substantial lactose loads that accompany milk consumption and would otherwise cause seriously debilitating adverse gastrointestinal effects.
In all mammalian species, intestinal lactase, highly active when the young are receiving their mother’s milk, is down regulated in a coordinated manner speculated to be a natural part of weaning the offspring away from mammary feeding so that the mother can initiate a new reproductive cycle. The result is that older offspring and adults become lactose intolerant; they fail to break down the lactose disaccharide, thus causing lactose intolerance but can be rapidly resolved with a lactose-exclusion diet. Thus fermented milk products came in to the picture and became vital part of our daily diet.
Milk is an excellent example of a food having both nutritional and non-nutritional physiological roles in the human diet. Milk proteins not only supply the body with amino acids necessary for the maintenance and growth of body protein, but also give rise, during food manufacture and/or food digestion, to a myriad of protein fragments and large and small peptides that have distinct biological functions.
Amino acids released during digestion have regulatory functions or act as precursors for the synthesis of key non-protein metabolites. Such compounds are a rich source of bioactive components for the development of functional foods. Fig.1 enlist the key functional roles of milk proteins, amino acids and bioactive peptides.
Recent Trends in Assessing Protein Quality
An international consensus view has formed that the traditional Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS) method for describing dietary protein quality for humans is being replaced by a method based on true ileal amino acid digestibility and availability and not involving truncation of the score for individual food ingredients (DIAAS ; Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score). Milk Protein has high true ileal digestibility value up to 95%. Calculated DIAAS values for whey protein isolate, milk protein isolate and whey protein concentrate are 1.25, 1.31 and 1.10 when compared with soy protein isolate (0.99) and pea protein concentrate (0.93) showed the significant complementary values of milk proteins. Because of their relatively high levels of nutritionally important amino acids, milk proteins are utilised efficiently by humans when given as a sole protein source. Due to high availability of amino acids in milk proteins and their abundant supply, milk proteins are commonly for manufacture of nutritionals - foods designed for specific nutritional purpose.
Novel Techniques to Access Microbial Content to Functionality
Despite health claims linked to the microbial composition of fermented beverages, there is a considerable lack of analyses relating to the microorganisms present and the quantities in which they exist in fermented dairy products. Application of unbiased, standardised techniques shall be used to assess beverages from different geographical regions, and to reach a consensus on the definition of microorganisms which constitute part of any particular product. Fermented dairy foods are naturally fermented, and thus subject to environmental influences, their microbiota can differ significantly, but the application of reliable technology can help definitively identify a core population (or lack thereof), responsible for characteristic traits of the fermented dairy product in question.
The availability of molecular technologies such as culture-independent, high-throughput, sequencing-based microbial analyses, metabolomics and bioinformatics prove particularly useful, and provide a more accurate picture of these populations, surmounting problems associated with relying on phenotypic-based approaches. In-depth molecular studies have the potential to be particularly useful when carrying out analyses across different fermented dairy food with a view to attributing specific desirable or non-desirable sensory and organoleptic characteristics with specific microorganisms present. Such approaches will ultimately facilitate accurate species identification, leading to novel starter design, and the development of products with different and complex flavour profiles. It will also be possible to more effectively monitor the change of proportions of different species throughout fermentation and storage.
Functional Products: Concept to Commercialisation
A fundamental characteristic of breakthrough products is their ability to meet consumer needs, providing added value and benefit for the consumer. In addition, breakthroughs have been defined as products, which may expand or redefine a product category being distinct from existing portfolios. Lifecycles of breakthrough products are typically longer than those of line extensions. Consequently, the development of a breakthrough requires an intricate combination of technological expertise and an awareness of the not so obvious market needs. It may thus be suggested that also the current technology push for functional food development must optimally target the market pull for such breakthrough products...
