CSIR will Soon Unveil Technology to Help Consumers Identify Spoilt Milk Without Opening the Packet

India’s premier national research institute CSIR will soon unveil a technology which will help a consumer in identifying spoilt milk without opening the packet of milk.  

Elaboring at the sidelines of ongoing IDF World Dairy Summit 2022 at Expo Centre in Greater Noida, Prof. Rajeshwar S. Matche, Chief Scientist and Head, Food Packaging and Technology, CSIR-CFTRI, Mysuru said, “Ordinary people of India face this basic problem of buying a packet of milk which is spoilt, but can’t identify at the outlet itself. So, when the packet is opened at home for boiling the milk, only then they get to know of spoilage. They end up feeling cheated.”

A significant issue for organized dairy industry as well, CFTRI division of CSIR started working on this specific issue based on market feedback and has so far tested this label based easy to use technology on milk, meat and Idli & Dosa batter.

CSIR-CFTRI team has been closely working with Nandini Dairy for experiments with near to 100% success rate.  While doing so, the supply of same packet of milk both in morning and evening has been taken care of.

Tentatively called ‘Time Temperature based Spoilage Indicator Testing’, per packet costing of technology will be 20-25 paise which, the CSIR feels, will help us in implementing the technology at mass scale.

“We are sensitive to both the issues of our Indian people and affordability of that solution. The food items that have been tested so far are used at mass scale, so we were sure about one thing from the beginning that the technology has to be affordable,” said Ms. Sridevi Annapurna Singh, Director, CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysuru who also chaired the session on ‘Field Practices to Detect and Mitigate Risks’.

With technology in hand, CSIR is working with a technology company to automate the process, as manual sticking of label on milk or other food item packet can slow down the process. Currently, labels can be put on only 60 milk packets per minute through manual intervention.

Once, automation is on board, CSIR will be all set to launch this radical technology not only in India but also overseas which may not be too far!

Others who spoke in the session were Chorekh Farrokh, Head of Food Safety Unit & Team Leader “Science Department” of CNIEL, France, Ms. Danielle Braga Chelini Pereira, Analytical Methodology Manager, Laticinios Bela Vista Ltd of Brazil, Par Waaben Hansen, Fellow Data Scientist at FOSS and Affiliated Associate Professor at University of Copenhagen and Dr. Naresh Kumar, Pricipal Scientist and In-Charge, National Referral Centre on Milk Quality and Safety, Dairy Microbiology Division, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal.