STUDIES ON RAW MILK QUALITY IN KAFR EL-SHEIKH

Abstract

Fluid milk is a highly perishable commodity; it has a special importance as a component of the diets of both young children and old people. For these reasons, the quality of milk is of a great importance than the quality of most other foods. The milk quality is determined by aspects of composition and hygiene. The compositional quality is influenced by feeding, genetics, breed, while •the hygienic parameters are decisive for food safety and might also influence the composition of milk. The production of wholesome milk of good keeping quality is a matter, which depends largely on the dairy farmer and his staff, who must possess a sound knowledge about cleanliness. The production of high quality milk is usually difficult to achieve in developing countries, where very high microbial levels in raw milk may be attributed to factors such as poor hygiene during milk handling, lack of cooling facilities at the farm, and high atmospheric temperatures during transportation (Van den Berg, 1988). In Kafr El-Sheikh, the majority of the dairy farmers have less than 20 cows and have no cooling facilities at their farms. Milk is tramported from the dairy farms to collection centers where a part of the bulk collected milk is sold fresh without heat treatment at the market, and the other part is sent to the processing plant at ambient temperature.