Advances in dairy Research
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The Hygienic Quality of Milk

Michael Parson^{* *}Correspondence: Michael Parson, Multi-disciplinary Research in Urban Ecology, Fordham University, USA, Email:

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Short Communication

Milk when it emerges from a healthy udder contains only a very few bacteria. In other words, milk is mainly contaminated with bacteria during milking. It is possible to milk animals in such a clean way that the raw milk contains only 500 to 1,000 bacteria per ml. The most common tests used to determine milk quality are somatic cell count (SCC), standard plate counts (SPC), preliminary incubation counts (PIC), lab pasteurized counts (LPC), and coliform counts. The SCC is a measure of body cells and white blood cells present in milk. Milk hygiene is a study of all the methods necessary to ensure the production, handling, and final delivery to the consumer of clean, wholesome, unadulterated milk or milk products-cream, butter, buttermilk, ice cream, etc. It does include foodborne pathogens. The hygienic and compositional quality of the feed plus drinking water can easily influence the raw milk's quality. Animals consuming feed of inferior hygienic quality, may express digestive disorders - resulting in an unhygienic animal environment, with possibly poor hygiene during milking and negative animal health.

Pasteurization is the process of heating milk to a high enough temperature for a long enough time to kill illness-causing germs. Pasteurized milk is milk that has gone through this process.

Milk leaves the cows at a body temperature of 101 degrees and is transferred to a holding tank via pipes that are sanitized and cleaned between each milking cycle. Every day or every other day, the raw milk is picked up from the farm by an insulated and refrigerated milk truck. Filtering or straining the milk removes visible dirt but not the bacteria in the milk because they pass through the filter. Aerial contamination of milk by bacteria is insignificant under normal production conditions. Dirty milk is a rich medium for the transmission of food borne and zoonotic diseases. Cross contamination with such conditions such as mastitis will reduce productivity at the farm. Clean milk helps in controlling the spread of infectious diseases like Tuberculosis and Diphtheria etc. It's packed with important nutrients like calcium, phosphorus, B vitamins, potassium and vitamin D plus, it's an excellent source of protein. Drinking milk and dairy products may prevent osteoporosis and bone fractures and even help you maintain a healthy weight. Somatic Cell Count: The number of somatic cells in milk, referred to as the somatic cell count or SCC, is used throughout the world as an indicator of milk quality. Clean milk has a normal composition, possesses a natural milk flavour, contains only a small number of harmless bacteria, is free from hazardous chemical residues and safe for human consumption. The status of raw milk is determined by its bacterial quality and the somatic cell count.

Milk borne diseases are a transmissible disease from contaminated milk and can be spread either directly by individuals or indirectly through air and polluted water. A disease caused by consuming contaminated food or drink. Myriad microbes and toxic substances can contaminate foods. Some of the major adulterants in milk having serious adverse health effect are urea, formalin, detergents, ammonium sulphate, boric acid, caustic soda, benzoic acid, salicylic acid, hydrogen peroxide, sugars and melamine. Other synthetic components can cause impairments, heart problems, cancer or even death. While the immediate effect of drinking milk adulterated with urea, caustic soda and formalin is gastroenteritis, the long-term effects are far more serious. Urea can lead to vomiting, nausea and gastritis.