Clean milk production and its importance
Clean milk is defined as milk which is drawn from udder of normal healthy animals collected in dry utensils and is free from extraneous matter like dirt, dust, flies, hay etc. Milk is normally sterile when it comes from udder of healthy animal. It is highly nutritious and contains protein, lipid, lactose, minerals etc. Due to its susceptibility to microbial spoilage as it serves as an ideal medium for rapid proliferation of harmful micro-organism. Therefore, there is need to protect it from all possible sources of contamination
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.
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