Influence of bulk transportation, storage and milking system on the quality of refrigerated milk

Abstract

Dairy farmers strive to meet industry quality standards, the industry focuses on the quality of the raw material for higher yield and quality of dairy product. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of bulk transportation, storage and milking system on the quality of refrigerated milk. Overall, 548 samples of refrigerated milk were collected, 312 from bulk tanks (individual and collective) and (manual and mechanical milking), 143 from tank cars and 93 from industrial silos. Mean values of proximate composition, somatic cell count (SCC) and total bacterial count (TBC), were compared in relation to different milking systems (manual and mechanical), type of producer (individual and collective) for these comparisons and for physicochemical analyses, total bacterial count and somatic cell count in different collections, the Tukey test at 5% significance level was used. It was observed that 40% of milk samples from bulk tanks, 69.93% of samples from tank cars and 62.36% of samples from industrial silos had SCC over 500,000 SC / ml. There was an increase of TBC from the bulk collection of milk on the farm up to the arrival of milk in the processing industry. Refrigerated milk stored in individual or collective bulk tanks obtained by manual or mechanical milking had to be adjusted to standards required by Normative Instruction number 62 of December 2011. Education and training measures such as hygienic milk collection, cleaning of milking equipment, proper implementation of mastitis control programs and refrigeration of the post-milking raw material must be adopted aiming at improving the quality of refrigerated milk.