In an effort to bring down leakage in milk packets, Aavin, the Tamil Nadu Milk Producers Cooperative Federation, has initiated a number of steps including, enhancing efficiency of machine operators at its dairies and placing orders to procure 25,000 tubs to replace old ones that were cracked.
Sources in Aavin said that milk packets that would hold nearly 400-600 litres leak at the dairies itself everyday. Apart from this, each delivery vehicle gets extra packets to off-set the leaky packets.
“Leaks happen due to four reasons mainly, poor quality of the plastic film in some spots in the roll, cracks in tubs, lack of operator's efficiency and voltage fluctuation. We are looking at all these aspects,” the official explained.
Aavin is asking suppliers of the plastic film to ensure its quality.
“The half litre packets are made of plastic with 50 – 55 microns' thickness and one litre packets come in 60 – 65 microns. If the operator finds that more than two or three packets have leaks during the sealing, the entire roll is kept aside and returned to the supplier,” the source said.
The supervision of operators is being tweaked with senior officials visiting the three dairies in the city on a daily basis. Closed Circuit TV cameras have been installed at the Sholinganallur dairy at a cost of Rs. 4.5 lakh and the system is being replicated at Madhavaram and Ambattur dairies. The Federation is in the process of procuring and installing high speed machinery to improve the quality of packaging.
