Completed Research Projects

Analogues or Imitation products have been the biggest challenge to the dairy industry as these products are being marketed using dairy brand equity. Their adverse effects will be reflected in the earning of dairy farmers, and it will directly influence the livelihood of Indian farmers. Hence, there is a need to increase awareness and educate the society about milk and its alternatives.  Some groups have also suggested to use unique colour-coding to distinguish dairy and non-dairy products. The USA has also proposed The Dairy Pride Act, which deals explicitly with analogue/imitation products that would protect dairy products' integrity by enforcing existing labelling requirements. FSSAI has also proposed draft regulations to define analogues in dairy context, which will help consumers differentiate dairy from non-dairy. There is a great need to study the consumer's perception. We do not have any systematic data about consumers' knowledge about the milk and milk products they purchase? What do they know about the milk and its plant-based alternatives? What is the level of understanding about reading the labels, content, nutrients, etc.? The proposed project may serve as a sample survey in Gujarat state. The data can be shared with our policymakers, i.e. FSSAI, and it can be an inspiration to launch the national-level survey