Fluid Milk Processing and Marketing for Sustainable Development of the Camels’ Herders Communities*

Abstract

Camel milk has an important role in the nourishment of the pastoralist as it contains all the essential nutrients found in bovine milk. However most of camel milk produced is consumed locally as it does not reach the urban markets because of many constraints. Currently there are increasing demands for camel milk among the urban settlers, which are mainly due to the increase awareness on its medicinal values. Some of spoilage and potential pathogens are detected in raw camel milk samples, although raw camel milk has longer shelf life than that of cow milk. This longer shelf life can be further extended when heat treatment is applied; which is lacking among most of the pastoral societies. Addition of lactoperoxidase enzmes system and some herbal plants were also found to improve the keeping quality of camel milk. These safe preservation methods improve the microbial loads and increase the shelf life of camel milk with little adverse effect on the compositional content including vitamin C. Hence it is possible to commercialize camel milk from remote areas to urban consumers nationally and as an international trade. However this necessitates initiation of milk collection centers and milk processing units equipped with facilities and to draw the attention of camels’ herders’ communities to accept marketing of their milk, which would result in improving their lifestyle. Some of the governmental strategies should also be directed towards supporting the initiatives by providing facilities and services and to state regulatory standards in order to cope with the international milk quality measures