FSSAI (Food Safety and Standard Authority of India) approved Yak as a food animal after the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD) recommendation. This step has been taken to counter the Decrease in the population of high-altitude bovine animals.
What is FOOD ANIMAL?
Animals are raised for the purpose of getting food for humans.
As hens, pigs, buffalo, etc. are raised for milk products and meat, they are counted as Food Animals.
The reason behind the decision
Yak is s a species of long-haired domesticated cattle found throughout the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent, the Tibetan Plateau, Kachin State (Northern Myanmar), Yunnan, Sichuan, Gilgit-Baltistan (Kashmir), and as far north as Mongolia and Siberia. It is descended from the wild yak.
Yaks have been reared for a long time under an unorganized system, and despite of this their population declining at a rapid rate. According to a census carried out in 2019, India has some 58,000 yaks – a drop of about 25% from the last livestock census conducted in 2012.
Mihir Sarkar, the director of the National Research Centre on Yak (NRC-Y) based in Arunachal Pradesh’s Dirang, said
The yak plays a multidimensional socio-cultural-economic role for the pastoral nomads who rear it mainly for earning their nutritional and livelihood security due to the lack of other agricultural activity in the higher reaches of the Himalayan region where it is difficult for animals except the yak to survive.
He also said.
The FSSAI’s recognition will help farmers rear the yak economically and open up several vistas of economic benefits for both farmers and food processors.
Nutritional Quality
Yak milk is very good for health, it is high in fat and mineral content, and also possesses high medicinal qualities.
| Water | 78-82% |
| Fat | 7.5-8.5% |
| Proteins | 4.9-5.3% |
| Solid-Not-Fat | 12.3-13.4% |
| Lactose | 4.5-5.0% |
Also, yak Meat is filled with great nutritional quality.
| Protein | 27.1% |
| Moisture | 74.8% |
| Crude Fat | 1.5% |
| Ash | 1.2% |
Mr. Sarkar also said.
NRC-Yak has developed a semi-intensive model of yak-rearing in which yaks are maintained in an open area as well as in paddock round the year. Now that the yak is a food animal, this model can go a long way in making yak-rearing a commercial success.
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