Conformity Assessment Scheme (CAS) of milk products

Why in news?

• Prime Minister has launched Portal and Logo dedicated to the Conformity Assessment Scheme (CAS) of milk products

About CAS:

• It has been developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) with the help of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).
• It is a unified, first of its kind certification scheme for dairy products.
• This has brought ‘Product–Food Safety Management System–Process’ certification under one umbrella with a unified logo featuring the earlier respective logos BIS-ISI mark & NDDB-Quality Mark and Kamdhenu Cow.

Why was it launched?

• NDDB and BIS have been involved in certification of Process and Products respectively.
• NDDB has been awarding ‘Quality Mark’ to the dairy plants of cooperatives adhering to the process standards across the dairy value chain helping in building the brand identity for cooperative dairies and enhanced consumer confidence. On the other hand, BIS has a product certification scheme for manufacturers, including dairy product processors which  also ensured food safety at product level allowing licensees to use ‘ISI Mark’ on their products.
• However there was no unification of product and process certification- making it difficult to dairy plants to avail end to end certification. Further the consumer awareness was also lacking towards quality of milk and products.

Benefits of the scheme:

• Simplify the certification process
• Create an instantly recognisable logo for public to be reassured about dairy product quality
• Increase the sales of milk and milk products in organized sector and in turn enhancing income of farmers
• Develop a quality culture in the dairy sector

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Consider the following statements regarding ‘Conformity Assessment Scheme (CAS) of milk products’:

1. It has been developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards

2. It has brought product and process certification of diary sector under one umbrella

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer