By Thivyamalini Ramalu
PUTRAJAYA, Aug 3 (Bernama) — Driven by passion and belief in the potential of local dairy products, a former veterinary assistant left a stable government job to carve out his own path in the milk-based food industry.
R. Ratha Krishnan, 43, decided to take early retirement from the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) five years ago and founded Betalac Dairy House Sdn Bhd, a dairy processing company based in Jelapang, Ipoh.
From its humble beginnings of selling only fresh milk, the company now produces a range of products, including yoghurt, flavoured milk, butter, ghee, lassi drinks and paneer (cottage cheese).
“I saw great potential in the production of local milk-based products. My family has long been involved in the industry on a small scale, so I took the step to expand and breathe new life into it.
“We’re also part of the DVS mentorship programme for entrepreneurs. As we don’t have our own cattle farm, we source milk from DVS-registered farmers. Our fresh milk usage for product manufacturing is around 1,500 litres per week, reaching up to 4,000 litres a month,” said the company founder in a recent interview with Bernama.
However, he declined to disclose Betalac Dairy House’s sales figures or annual revenue, saying the company is still relatively new.
In addition to dairy product manufacturing, the company has also developed an innovative manual compression machine specifically for making paneer more hygienically and efficiently.
Known as the Paneer Compactio, the machine is designed to compress and mould blocks of cottage cheese that are firm, neat and of uniform size.
“Usually, hydraulic machines are used for compression, but they are costly because they’re automated. So we designed this manual machine, which costs only around RM1,800.
“We used to rely on traditional methods like placing stones and weights, which were less satisfactory from a hygiene standpoint, especially now that our paneer products are certified under the ‘MeSTI’ (Food Safety is the Responsibility of the Industry) scheme and are halal-certified,” he said.
Weighing 32 kilogrammes (kg), the stainless steel Paneer Compactio can be operated by just one person and is capable of producing over 30 kg of paneer a day.
According to Ratha Krishnan, who is also Betalac Dairy House chief executive officer, the machine is manufactured in Perak based on the company’s own design and specifications, taking into account the real needs of small and medium players in the dairy and food industries.
“The company will also take steps to register this product with the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO),” he added.
The company’s innovation has already paid dividends, with the Paneer Compactio taking third place in the Industrial Innovation (Product) Award at the DVS Innovation Day held in Putrajaya on July 24.
Asked about the company’s plans, he said it is expanding its range of cottage cheese products, which will be officially launched at Agrofest Perak this September.
“For now, our paneer is available in Perak and at Little India in Penang … we’re planning to open our own outlet too. Moving forward, we aim to turn our paneer into a nugget-like food item resembling chicken meat, but vegetarian.
“We’ve already started research and are working closely with the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute and DVS to ensure that vegetarian consumers can use it with confidence,” he added.
— BERNAMA
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