Dear Eco-Generation members,

Today, Serve The Heroes, an initiative for laborers founded by me, took a recreational trip to the Al Rawabi Dairy, which is a very well renowned brand of dairy products and juices in the UAE. A team of 40 members, we all enthusiastically joined hands to have something rewarding done for our members. Serve The Heroes, which usually targets to serve refreshments to laborers working in the scorching heat at their construction site, was invited by the esteemed dairy for a fully-guided farm and factory tour.

We started off and reached their factory in Dubai, and then visited their milk plant. There they were, hundreds of milk bottles being filled, labelled, capped and packed off in crates. There were 4 types of milk that are produced in this factory. Full fat milk containing 3.2% fat, Low fat milk, containing 0.2% fat, skimmed milk, containing 0% fat and double cream milk containing 6% fat. The latter is used only for catering purposes. The Yogurt goes through a process of bacteria culture, churning, pasteurization, heating and cooling over a period of 20 hours. We were all fascinated to see the milk being filled, packed and capped without the use of human labor.

Next, we took a break outside and had juice from the gift hampers that were kindly given to us by the Al Rawabi staff. As a Tunza Eco-Generation Ambassador, I made sure that none of the bottles of juice were strewn on the ground or simply dumped away. I collected them in a carton to be sent for recycling. After a cool and refreshing break, we moved on to find out how these juices which we just drank are made!

Yes, we proceeded to the juice plant and faced a similar scene as the milk plant. Only difference was that over here we noticed an interesting process called quenching. In quenching, the seal of the juice bottles that is melted on to them is directly passed under a stream of cold water to solidify it. The juice bottles were going at a rate of 300-600 bottles per hour. There are 15 flavors that Al Rawabi produces, with the pulp coming from various places e.g. Oranges from Florida in USA, mangoes from India, etc. They can do only one flavor at a time, so for 45 mins, they take up one flavor.

Next we took a bus to the farm of AL Rawabi to the milking section where we saw the milking of the cows, being done in a very disciplined manner. They were coming in a single file, knew exactly where their spot was and dispersed in an orderly manner too. All these cows come from Holland, and are of the Holstein breed. We saw them being milked by the vacuum and before and after the milking, we noticed that Iodine was sprayed on their nipples to make it open and close and for hygiene purposes.

 All in all, it was a very rewarding and enjoyable experience for all members of Serve The Heroes as we saw the process of milking, packaging and producing up close  and also became acquainted with the knowledge relating to it