MILK HYGIENE
MILK HYGIENE
There is need to pay attention to the basic principles of hygiene to reduce milk losses. Milk is an ideal medium for growth of many kinds of microorganisms, which cause spoilage of milk and can cause sickness to consumers. In order to produce clean milk, the following should be considered:
- A clean dairy house – The khola must be properly maintained with clean bedding. The milking parlour should have a concrete floor for easy cleaning
- A clean milker – the milker should be healthy, with clipped finger nails, must wash hands, put on clean clothes and head gear before starting milking. The milker should be free from zoonotic diseases
- A clean cow – The cow should be healthy and clean, udder and the teats should be thoroughly washed with clean warm water and dried with a clean cloth
- Clean utensils – Milk starts to lose its quality as soon as it has been milked and this can be minimized through the use of clean utensils. The following are the steps:-
- Rinse out all milk residues with cold clean water
- Ensure that utensils are thoroughly scrubbed with a hot detergent solution
- Again rinse with cold clean water
- After thorough cleaning, the utensils should be put inverted on a drying rack in direct sunlight.
- It is absolutely necessary to filter the milk. The cloths used for this purpose should be washed with soap after each use
- Keep the milk as cool as possible
- Do not mix the milk milked in the morning and that milked in the afternoon
- Deliver the milk promptly to the milk bulking group to avoid spoilage.
