Maharashtra Shifts 65,000 Students to Tetra Pak Flavoured Milk
Maharashtra’s Social Justice and Special Assistance Department introduced the centralized supply scheme on September 15. It replaced temporary arrangements under which individual residential facilities obtained milk from local suppliers. The change followed a state government resolution issued on August 31.
The programme covers 46,663 students living in 449 government social-welfare hostels and 18,600 pupils attending 92 state residential schools. The milk is supplied in 200 ml aseptic Tetra Pak cartons with a flavoured formulation, rather than as fresh, unflavoured liquid milk.
An e-tender was assessed by the state-level administrative procurement committee, which set the price at ₹26.40 per carton. The approved price and other procurement conditions apply for three years, with no provision for interim rate changes. The contract allows immediate cancellation if a supplier fails to meet verified quality requirements or delivery schedules.
Distribution has been divided between two dairy processors. Parag Milk Foods is responsible for institutions in the Mumbai, Nashik, Pune and Latur divisions. Shree Warana Sahakari Dudh Utpadak Prakriya Sangh, a cooperative processor, is assigned the Nagpur, Amravati and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar divisions.
Aseptic packaging does not require a cold chain and provides longer storage stability, including at facilities in remote rural areas. The shift has nevertheless prompted objections from nutritional experts and student-advocacy groups. They have questioned the replacement of fresh milk with sweetened, flavoured products because of their added sugar and industrial flavourings, and have also compared the carton price with the cost of expanding fresh-milk procurement from local dairies.
Implementation now rests with the Office of the Social Welfare Commissioner. Its responsibilities include setting quality-control procedures at hundreds of receiving points, overseeing batch testing, collecting feedback from students and coordinating delivery intervals to avoid excess or insufficient inventory. The arrangement gives organized dairy processors a three-year institutional outlet requiring large-volume UHT aseptic production.
