ISLAMABAD: The Punjab government has decided to ban sale of loose mill( from 2022.

This was stated by the Punjab Food Authority (PFA) Chairman Umar Tanveer Butt while addressing a seminar on safe milk on Wednesday. The event was organised by Pakistan Dairy Association.

He, however, said creating awareness about the benefits of processed milk not only among the small farmers but also among consumers was a daunting task.

Mr Butt said the most serious task in this regard was to upgrade the capacity of small farmers.

`There is a misconception, but we do not want to finish off small dairy farmers. However, they have to change according to the need of time,` the PFA chairman said.

He said PFA was determined to ensure that safe milk was supplied to consumers.

He highlighted that the PFA had around 40,000 outlets to check milk quality and 600,000 litres were discarded in 2018 either for being spurious or stale.

The keynote speaker in theseminar was Prof Dr Nevzat Artik of the Food Safety Institute, University of Ankara, who is also called the father of dairy development in Turkey.

He said Pakistan had more cattle, goat and sheep compared to Turkey but the milk yield was much higher.

He said the European standards had been implemented in the milk sector since 2013 all over Turkey as a result the milk yield has been increasing.

`The per capita milk consumption in 2008 was 26 litres per annum and in 2018 it was 41.5 litres so is the consumption of cheese, yogurt, etc.,` Dr Artik said, adding that currently the exports of dairy products from Turl(ey was around $325 million whereas the country imports butter and cheese worth $92 million.

He suggested that if Pakistan had adopted the international dairy standards not only milk and milk production would improve, but wastage would have declined and the country would have become an exporting country in this sector. -Kalbe All