QUALITY AND SAFETY TESTSAND FUTURE

QUALITY AND SAFETY TESTS
AND FUTURE TRENDS
Liquid Milk
Hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP) is
a valuable tool for assuring milk quality and safety.
HACCP comprises three key areas: hazard identification,
determination of critical control points (CCP),
and monitoring CCP. An example of a HACCP audit
chart for raw milk is given in Table 4.12.
The critical operation in raw milk is the receival
of milk at the receival bay of the dairy processing
plant. The potential risks include mainly contamination
of milk with antibiotics, spoilage microorganisms,
poor organoleptic quality and adulteration of
milk, and separation of fat during transport of raw
milk. The purpose of CCP is essentially to assure
quality and stability of milk for processing. The prevention
control and monitoring include a variety of
visual inspection, chemical and physical tests, microbiological
and organoleptic tests. Possible corrective
actions are also shown in Table 4.12. For example,
when presence of antibiotics is detected in the milk,
the quality assurance laboratory should inform the
factory manager and withhold the product from sale.
An example of HACCP audit chart for pasteurization
and homogenization of raw milk is given
in Table 4.13. The critical control points in assuring
quality and safety are pasteurization, homogenization,
cooling, filling, and storage of packaged
milk. The potential risks involved include survival
of pathogen due to improper pasteurization
time/temperature control, separation of cream due to
improper homogenization, bacterial growth in milk
during cooling and temporary storage before filling
operations, microbial contamination of filled milk
due to inadequate plant hygiene and sanitation, contamination
of end product with sanitizers, under and
overfilling, use-by-date labeling errors or defects,
packaging defects, and microbial growth during storage
of packaged milk before retail distribution to supermarkets.
The prevention control and monitoring
include visual inspection, chemical, physical, and microbiological
tests and checking equipment including
heat exchangers, fillers, and packaging machinery.
In the processing of flavored milk, similar quality
assurance tests are conducted. An additional critical