Mumbai: Aarey and Mahanand Dairy brands will be relaunched soon, Meenesh Shah, chairman, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), informed CM Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday. He also said that the NDDB has developed a test strip to check for adulteration of dairy products. Fadnavis then suggested that NDDB, along with the Indian Institute of Technology, develop a system using artificial intelligence to prevent milk adulteration.At a meeting at the CM’s official residence, Varsha, Fadnavis informed that currently 40% of the milk in the state is processed through the organised sector. Since the remaining milk comes from the unorganised sector, it is here that the level of adulteration is found to a large extent. Therefore, the govt is focusing on bringing more and more producers and villages into the organised dairy system.“The goal is to connect 75,000 new villages across the country to the cooperative system. This will not only provide more benefits to farmers but also help prevent adulteration. A special test strip has been developed to prevent milk adulteration, and this strip is capable of identifying urea and other adulterants, and it will be fully operational in the next six months,” he said.Shah said the state govt’s cooperation has accelerated the revival of Mahanand, and about 78% of the work has been completed. A new greenfield dairy project with a capacity of three lakh litres will be set up. Signature parlours and a state-of-the-art building have been built in the Mahanand area at Goregaon.A compressed biogas project will be set up in Aarey Colony and a new Mahanand dairy plant in Udgir. A state-of-the-art dairy project will be set up in Butibori in Nagpur. Also, milk collection is being increased in 19 districts of Vidarbha and Marathwada by the NDDB. A state-of-the-art laboratory has been set up in Mahanand Dairy for testing milk and milk products, said Shah.
