Covid- 19 delivered a lasting impact on nearly every aspect of day-to-day life, and the dairy industry is no exception. As the pursuit of health and wellness continues to be on consumers' minds, the dairy industry is now witnessing a massive shift in
consumer behavior. Within India’s organized
dairy segment, this has led to the growth of the value-added dairy segment.
Moving forward, the leading Indian companies have created awareness about their product, highlighting the immunity and nutrition factors during the pandemic. The organization is also exponentially investing to level up the quality and traceability of their product. New testing procedures are now being increasingly introduced in the market today, creating a paradigm shift in the overall operation and impression of the industry.
In this article, let’s have a deeper look at the recent advancements and progress of the Indian dairy industry to conclude its effect in the near future.
Testing is Traveling Upstream
Across the broader dairy industry, testing technologies are being applied further upstream in the supply chain by processors. With more stringent global food regulations, a growing clean-label product demand, and rising competition between brands, processors are requiring or intensifying early stage and raw ingredient testing in order to have more control of product quality.
The change to upstream testing can be most clearly seen in antibiotics residue testing. Veterinary drugs, such as antibiotics are used on farms to prevent infections and promote health in cows. To prevent antibiotic residues from accumulating upstream and seeping into dairy supplies, processors rigorously test samples to ensure compliance.
By routinely applying the novel technologies, processors can more easily adhere to regulations and continue to provide consumers with safe products. They can also more confidently assure safety in their products as well as
prevent the large-scale losses incurred when contaminated ingredients are mingled with healthy supplies. As testing continues to move upstream, easy-to-use and transportable technologies will be important.
Harnessing the power of Data
While testing data solutions are currently being rolled out across almost every industry, they remain generally underused in the dairy industry, offering processors an opportune chance to get ahead.
One way data solutions can help processors is through synchronization of their workflows to achieve improved efficiency. Some solutions can give access to visualization and predictive analysis, helping to provide a more complete overview of workflows, ingredient quality, and product performance. Modern software tools can also pull out areas where workflows can be made more efficient, with the overall goal of leveraging data to help managers make more informed and faster decisions that can reduce time, cost and waste demands while increasing product quality.
Data solutions in dairy are undoubtedly going to scale up in the future. As sensores become more sophisticated, two areas within data solutions in particular will be available for processors, and second, tailored automation when leveraging data will become widespread.
Intuitive Instrumentation
The food processing industry generally sees high staff turnover. With broader labor shortages across several industries, dairy processors are also seeing more intense staff shortages. The specific and lengthy training requirements within the dairy processing industry in particular means that these shortages are leading to workflow breakdowns and reduced productivity. To keep profit margins stable, processors need to embrace technologies that can help remedy these issues.
Intuitive instruments and software that deliver real-time learning can reduce training times and keep workflows optimized, even as staff change. Through clever design, manufacturers can integrate useful features like touch screens, one-button operation, and automation to lower barriers to use for operators and scientists alike. They can also ensure that maintenance on the equipment is simple to perform, thereby minimizing downtime. These collective modifications can add up to big benefits in workflow efficiency.
Way to Future
As with many industries, the dairy industry is currently undergoing a period of change. Adapting to this fundamental if the industry wants to maintain dairy’s near-global appeal as a popular, reliable, nutritional, and tasty product. For tightening the regulations to integrate technology, there are no signs that the dynamic dairy industry is slowing down. Further, with milk becoming ever more global and differences in product demands continuing to diverge.
Smart, robust testing and analysis technologies are key when trying to stay on top in the quickly changing landscape of dairy. With innovative testing and analysis solutions and best practices, processors can add new firepower to their value and quality and continue to create competitively exciting and consumer-driven products to the global marketplace.
