Milk and Milk Products Technology

Milk is a valuable nutritious food that has a short shelf-life and requires careful handling. Milk is highly perishable because it is an excellent medium for the growth of microorganisms particularly bacterial pathogens that can cause spoilage and diseases in consumers. Milk processing allows the preservation of milk for days, weeks or months and helps to reduce food-borne illness. The usable life of milk can be extended for several days through techniques such as cooling (which is the factor most likely to influence the quality of raw milk) or fermentation. Pasteurization is a heat treatment process that extends the usable life of milk and reduces the numbers of possible pathogenic microorganisms to levels at which they do not represent a significant health hazard. Milk can be processed further to convert it into high value, concentrated and easily transportable dairy products with long shelf lives, such as butter, cheese and ghee.-Publisher