The first-year BCom students went on an industrial visit on 7 January 2023. They visited the Milma Dairy in Thruppunithara to understand how the milk collected from farmers is processed to be finally consumed by the consumers.
The Milma dairy, in Thrippunithara, is a busy food production plant located in Ernakulam district. The dairy staff escorted the students through the dairy, showing how milk was being processed into different products like ghee, butter, curd and buttermilk. They saw different machinery used at various stages of milk processing like the pasteuriser, cream separator, huge milk silos, enormous cold storage units, ghee making machines and so on.
Milk societies collect milk from farmers. Dairies like Milma collect the milk from such societies and proces the milk in their plant. This processed milk is temporarily stored in huge silos for further processing as per demand.
In the pasteurisers, the millk is chilled to 4 degree celsius and immediately heated to 76 degree celsius to make it free of microbes. Pasteurisation is followed by a quality checking process after which the milk is packaged as per its fat composition.
Milma produces four varieties of milk– Pride, Smart, Rich and Toned milk based on the percentage of fat. The varieties are easily distinguished as per the colour of the packets. Milma PRIDE – Homogenised Pasteurised, with added Vitamin A and D (fat- 3.3%, SNF-8.5%)
- Milma SMART – Double Toned Milk (fat-1.5%, SNF-9.0%)
- Milma RICH – Standardised Milk (fat- 4.5%, SNF- 8.5%)
- Milma TONED MILK – Pasteurised Milk (fat- 3.0%, SNF- 8.5%)
Of the four,Pride has the highest demand of about 2,00,000 sachets per day.
The visit provided insights into the processing of milk, the functioning of milk societies, quality control etc. besides an idea of production plant layout, machinery, buildings and other such nuances.
The students were accompanied by Dr. Manjula R. Iyer, Dr. A. S. Ambily and Mr. Pradeep Kumar.