Handling Dairy Products From Processing To Consumption

By Jeff Bloom, Executive Vice President, The Dairy Practices Council

Dairy products must be processed so that there is no contamination after pasteurization. Hot water flushing at a discharge temperature of at least 170°F for five minutes should be used on processing and filling equipment which comes in contact with pasteurized milk and dairy products at the start of each production day. It is recognized that various chemical solutions are commonly used to sanitize equipment, but they are not as effective as the proper use of heat. They may be used to cool equipment after hot water sanitizing. Samples of fluid milk and dairy products should be held until the expiration date at 45°F. No detectable off-flavors should develop. Bacterial counts for fresh products should be much lower than published regulatory standards. All size packages of fluid milk and dairy products should not exceed 40°F when entering the cold room.

Samples of all pasteurized dairy products, including cultured and frozen products, tested on the day of processing should be free of coliform and psychrotrophic bacteria. This includes cultured and frozen products. Most regulations permit less than 10 coliform per milliliter, but with proper heat sanitization of equipment, proper pasteurization, no post-pasteurization contamination, and adherence to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), products should be free from coliforms and psychrotrophs. Surveys of store-purchased milk samples show that more than 80 percent of samples are free of coliforms seven days after processing. Butter, cheese, and cultured products should also be free of yeasts and molds.

Please log in or register below to read the full article.