Importance of clean milk production for farmers and consumers

What are the sources of milk contamination?

Milk contaminants can be broadly categorized into internal factors and external factors

Internal factors

• Udder mastitis or udder tuberculosis can lead to contamination by bacteria
• Many infectious disease agents are also secreted in milk when animal got diseased with them, hence to produce clean milk production it is must to maintain good animal health.
• Foremilk of animal i.e. first few streams of milk may have a higher bacterial load as a result of bacteria that enter the udder through the teats so care must be taken to discard first few milk

External factors:

• Milker hygiene is important as milker should be healthy and equally should have good habits.
• Milk storage facility and utensils should be clean and dry
• Method of milking : Feed and Water used in daily routine should be clean, properly stored and easily accessible to animals. Feed ingredients should be stored in moisture-free conditions and should be free from industrial and environmental contaminants, pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, fumigants, aflatoxins as well as heavy metals
• Milking environment should be dirt/dust free and mosquito/flies free. Regular washing and cleaning of milking parlour should be done routinely with proper disinfectants

Why it is important to produce clean milk production for farmers?

Lack of clean milk production by farmers can lead to:

• Rejection of milk by consumers
• Decrease in keeping quality
• Transmission of food borne diseases
• Spread of zoonotic diseases

Clean milk production can help farmers by:

• Enabling to produce good quality dairy products and byproducts
• Yielding huge income in terms of high commercial value
• Making transportation of mil and its products over long distances feasible

 Significance of clean milk production
Despite huge increase in milk production and annual growth of 6.26% recorded in 2017-2018, India’s global participation in milk trade is negligible which can be attributed to both lack of clean milk production and huge demand in country itself.  Therefore need of the hour is to increase the milk production and to generate revenue or huge income from milk trade farmer should learn to produce clean milk production.