NEW DELHI, July 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
Quality Mark to provide brand identity
Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Hon'ble Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare launched NDDB's Quality Mark logo at Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi on 20th July, 2017 in presence of Shri Sudarshan Bhagat, Hon'ble Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Shri Devendra Chaudhry, Secretary, DAHD&F and Shri Dilip Rath, Chairman, National Dairy Development Board.
(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/537636/NDDB_Launch_of_Quality_Mark.jpg )
The Union Agriculture Minister also awarded certificates to the 14 selected manufacturing units for adopting food safety and quality management systems for milk and milk products and adhering to Quality Mark parameters.
While launching NDDB's Quality Mark the Union Agriculture Minister said, "The Quality Mark will provide dairy cooperatives and producer institutions, the much-needed brand identity and a competitive edge. This will also contribute to building consumer confidence in dairy cooperative brands." He conveyed that the Quality Mark is aimed at bringing about process improvement in the entire value chain from producer to the consumer, to ensure availability of quality milk and products.
He further said that an eleven-member Management Committee will oversee the activities of the Quality Mark. The committee members include - a representative from DAHDF, Managing Directors of four Federations representing the regions, a representative from the FSSAI and two experts in dairying. The interested Federations/Cooperative dairies/educational institutions/Govt. dairy units may apply for the Quality Mark. Only dairy units that adopt food safety and quality management systems for milk and milk products and adhere to parameters given in the guidelines of Quality Mark are eligible.
Shri Sudarshan Bhagat said, "Operational norms for participating dairy units will be monitored and validated. The assessment is a two-step process involving pre-assessment and a final assessment. The pre-assessment largely covers the village-level procurement and processing infrastructure availability, training manpower and the retail sales. Only those dairy units that score over 70% in the preliminary assessment are considered for final assessment which is done by a team of up to three experts of which one is an external expert. The final assessment is made for the evaluation of critical and major parameters that influence the quality of the processed milk and milk products."
Shri Dilip Rath, Chairman, NDDB informed, "The award of Quality Mark shall be valid for three years subject to maintenance of quality, food safety standards and compliance with terms and conditions of the agreement. Though the validity is for three years, the surveillance audit for checking compliance with the norms of quality mark shall be held once every year."
Chairman, NDDB said that since roll-out of the initiative in last year, NDDB has received 55 applications from the cooperatives across the country till July 2017. Of these, 14 units have successfully cleared the two-stage assessment process. The remaining 31 dairies were informed about the areas of improvement. They have been given 6-9 months time for implementing the corrective measures.
Shri Devendra Chaudhry said that this initiative of NDDB will facilitate and strengthen the efforts of FSSAI. It will also create requisite awareness among various dairy units across the country for adopting the quality measures detailed in the guideline document.
For more details on NDDB, please visit: http://www.nddb.org/.
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