Himalayan yak gets FSSAI food animal tag

The categorisation is expected to check the decline in the population of the high-altitude bovine, the National Research Centre on Yak said.

GUWAHATI

The Himalayan yak has earned the food animal tag from the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI).

The categorisation is expected to help check the decline in the population of the high-altitude bovine animal by making it a part of the conventional milk and meat industry.

Mihir Sarkar, the director of the National Research Centre on Yak (NRC-Y) based in Arunachal Pradesh’s Dirang, said his institution had submitted a proposal to the FSSAI in 2021 for considering the yak as a food animal.

The FSSAI responded with an official approval a few days ago after a recommendation from the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying.

“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,” Mr. Sarkar said.

Yaks are traditionally reared under a transhumance system which is primitive, unorganised and full of hardship. But the yak population in the country has been decreasing at an alarming rate, data provided by the NRC-Y said.