Do you not have the right to know where your milk comes from?
Here’s a general process involved in a litre of milk that you have been consuming all these years.
Milking
The farmer milks cows mostly by traditional methods of hand milking.
Collection Centres
Milk is then sent to collection centres where it is stored for a day or two in a refrigerated tank.
Transportation
Collected by tanker and taken to the processing plant, which could be from few kms to about 100 kms away too.
More Storage
Stored at the plant, till the time it’s tested for further investigations in the lab.
Pasteurization
Milk is forced through hot plates to heat it rapidly to a temperature of 75 degrees C. It is then forced through ice cold plates to cool it rapidly to 4 degrees C. This can kill off some harmful bacteria but also kills most of the good bacteria and lactase enzymes, making it indigestible to some people (popularly known as lactose intolerant).
Standardisation
All of the butterfat (cream) is removed and then a certain percentage is put back, to make either “whole milk”, “semi-skimmed” or “skimmed”. Any leftover cream (and there’s plenty!) Is used to make other products. You’re being swindled out of good cream!
Homogenisation
Literally meaning ‘to make it homogenous’ or all exactly the same. Milk is shaken so hard, all the delicate fat molecules are smashed into tiny pieces until they are unable to rise to the top. This is why you never get that lovely line of cream on top of your milk anymore.
Packing
Milk is packed in various forms of packing like pouch, pet bottles or tetra packs, before being sent for distribution.
Distribution
Milk is trucked all over the country, to shops and wholesalers. It’s crazy to think that the milk from our farm could travel hundreds of miles before ending up in our supermarkets, a lot older and more battered than when it left!
Shelf life
We all know how long that is. Say another week. So by the time the milk ends up in your fridge, it could be anything up to one week old.
Too add to all this is the adulteration at various stages. Finally what you consume is anything else but milk in its true form.
At Moms' farmstead dairy, milk is simply filtered, cooled and packed immediately for transportation through our cold chain system. No processing and no adulteration. Our milk reaches you in less than 24 hours from its milking rendering it completely fresh and good to drink.
Enjoy the difference!
