My day often concludes with a glass of warm milk which I sip on right before I hit the bed. But with every glass I consume, a question looms large in my mind. Is this really going to help me with my health, especially with the kind of adulteration going around these days? I'm sure many people think along the same lines as well. Incidentally, I stumbled upon Rucira Dairy which promises not just purity but also no preservatives or hormones and delivery within 24 hours of the cows being milked. Fascinated, I got in touch with Pranay Kollaparthi who, along with his father Ananda Krishna Kollaparthi, started Rucira Dairy just over a month ago. And the 27-year-old took us through how they wanted to focus on freshness and health as opposed to what the regular brands offer — milk at least five days old. "You know how freshly squeezed orange juice is different from canned orange juice? We want to be the former," says Pranay.
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About 40 km from Chilkoor Balaji Temple, popularly known as Visa Balaji Temple, near Vikarabad in Telangana is a 14-acre farmland that the father-son duo took on a lease for ten years to start Rucira Dairy with 200 cows. Four acres of the farmland is dedicated to a shed and the processing unit, "and by processing I mean pasteurisation and homogenisation," shares Pranay, who pursued Engineering from Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology. And before you equate this enterprise to any other dairy farm, let me tell you that it is completely technology-driven. The Vansun milking parlour, a machine imported from Israel, milks the cows, we are told. It even detects infection, in which case, it stops milking and sounds an alarm. Then, there is TMR or the Total Mix Ratio machine imported from Brazil. "Think of it as a mixer-grinder," says Pranay, who goes on to say that the machine even dispenses feed as per the output of the cow.
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If you live in Jubilee Hills, Madhapur, Kondapur or Gachibowli, rejoice! Because you can order a pet bottle of Rucira Diary to your doorstep bright and early every morning. But residents of other areas, don't be disheartened too quickly as they are planning to expand their operations soon. We also hear that they are a hit with gated communities. Not just this, on the menu could also be flavoured milk, greek yoghurt, ice cream and so much more. "All this is really adventurous in its own way and through it, I feel close to nature," says Pranay who handles the marketing side of things. While their Instagram game is strong, their word-of-mouth style of marketing is working in their favour too. But what could be against it is the cost point. Selling at Rs 100 per litre, while the regular milk sells at Rs 45, is proving to be a challenge. But I'm sure those who believe in quality would shell out even more, knowing that their glass of milk is nothing but milk.
Figuring out the fake
So, how do you know if the milk you drink is adulterated?
- Sniff it, synthetic milk has a specific odour to it
- As milk is a naturally sweet product, if it tastes otherwise, then it's adulterated
- If milk leaves a trail behind when you pour it from a slanted surface, chances are it is not pure
- If you add two tablespoons of salt to five millilitres of milk and it turns blue, then it is adulterated
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For more on them, check out instagram.com/rucira.dairy
