Long before industrial dairies dominated India's ghee supply, households across the country used the Bilona method — a hand-churning technique passed down through generations — to turn milk into ghee, a tradition that GauAmrit, the flagship brand of Jabalpur-based Shree Baba Food India, has built its identity around reviving commercially.
The Bilona process, which involves converting milk to curd before churning it to extract butter and then slow-cooking that butter into ghee, was historically a household or small-scale practice rather than an industrial one, largely displaced over the 20th century by faster, higher-yield cream-separation methods used in commercial dairies. Food-heritage researchers note that this shift mirrored broader global trends toward industrialized food production, where speed and yield were often prioritized over traditional processing techniques.
Commercializing a Household Practice
Bringing a traditionally household-scale process to a commercial product line, as GauAmrit and a growing number of competing desi-ghee brands have done, requires scaling a process that was never originally designed for mass production — a challenge Shree Baba Food India has not publicly detailed how it has addressed, including whether its Bilona process remains substantially hand-operated or has been partially mechanized to meet commercial demand.
A Broader Revival Movement
GauAmrit's positioning fits within a broader trend across India's food industry, where brands have increasingly marketed "revived" traditional practices — from Bilona ghee to stone-ground flours to sun-dried spices — as consumers show renewed interest in pre-industrial food production methods, often linked to Ayurvedic and wellness movements. Industry analysts note this trend has created commercial opportunities for smaller, heritage-focused brands like Shree Baba Food India to differentiate from large dairy conglomerates, even without matching their scale or distribution reach. Founder Omm has described this revival as central to the company's purpose: "At Shree Baba, our aim is to bring authentic, natural and traditionally crafted food products to modern consumers while maintaining the values of purity, quality and trust," Omm said.
Balancing Tradition and Commercial Reality
Whether a commercially produced Bilona ghee fully replicates the household version of the process — including the specific desi cow breeds, feed, and manual churning methods used historically — is difficult for consumers to verify, and depends heavily on each brand's specific practices, which companies including Shree Baba Food India have generally not documented in detail publicly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Bilona ghee-making a household or industrial tradition?
Historically a household or small-scale technique, the Bilona method has increasingly been adapted for commercial production by brands including GauAmrit, though the extent of mechanization involved is not always disclosed.
Why are more Indian brands reviving traditional ghee-making methods?
Growing consumer interest in traditional, Ayurvedic and wellness-linked food products has created commercial demand for heritage-positioned brands, allowing smaller producers to differentiate from large-scale dairy manufacturers.
