Identification of the relationship among the keeping quality, alcohol test results, and total colony count in raw milk used for dairy processing

Abstract

As the main ingredient in dairy industry, raw milk has to be handled with superior quality because, it is critical not just for food safety, but for the product quality. Quality checking procedures are essential for a long term supplies of higher quality dairy products. Therefore, dairy companies allocate a higher capital for daily quality assurance process of raw milk. At the point of factory receiving, alcohol test, keeping quality test (KQ), and total colony count (TCC) are three basic quality tests which are carried out to each raw milk sample. The aim of this research was to identify the relationships among the keeping quality, alcohol test results, and total colony count in raw milk used for dairy processing. For that, collected milk samples were subjected to alcohol, keeping quality and TCC tests. One way ANOVA, two sample t-test and chi-square test data analysis revealed that, KQ = 6 raw milk samples were negatively identified for alcohol test and its TCC is less than 120×105 CFU/mL. KQ = 4 milk samples were positively identified for alcohol test and its TCC is more than 300 ×105 CFU/mL. KQ = 5 milk samples with total colony count less than 200 × 105 CFU/mL give negative results for the alcohol test whereas, KQ = 5 milk samples with total colony counts greater than 200 × 105 CFU/mL provide positive alcohol test results. These all testing procedures relate to the available microorganisms and their metabolic activities in raw milk. It will enable the prediction of the outcome of one test based on the results of another, without the need to conduct each test separately. This approach will reduce the number of tests required to ensure the quality of raw milk, resulting in minimized cost allocations for quality assurance procedures.