Blog Posts About Liquid Sampling Written by Our Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
Dairy Farm Contamination Issues—How Sampling Comes to the Rescue
Guest post: QualiTru is pleased to introduce our guest blogger, Randy Allwardt. He has been a Hygiene Specialist at Prengers Inc. for the past eight years, helping dairy farmers in the Midwest prevent and troubleshoot issues related to milk quality. Dairy farm contamination issues are serious. Accurately identifying a source of contamination is critical for…
Using Preliminary Incubation Count for Measuring Raw Milk Quality
The Preliminary Incubation (PI) Count for measuring the quality of raw milk has become increasingly popular since the production of quality milk is the number one goal of dairy farmers and cooperatives. The PI test is especially sensitive to psychrotrophic bacteria. These particular bacteria can grow at colder temperatures, which is why dairy processors are encouraging…
Aseptic Sampling System for Tanker Trucks: Enhancing Safety and Efficiency
This is a guest post written by Mark Z. Moores, CPCU, ARM, AAI, President, Moores Insurance Management, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is a highly respected adviser in the insurance industry. See Author Bio at the end of the post. Compared to other industries, trucking, including the milk tanker industry, has some of the highest work-related injury…
Bacteriophage Control Using Closed Bulk Starter Vessel Inoculation – Part 2
Bacteriophage control and management for preventing phage invasions are challenges many dairy processing plants face. Starter culture bacteria play an essential role by converting milk sugar (lactose) into lactic acid in making dairy products such as cheese and yogurt. Photomicrograph of yogurt showing S. thermophilus and L. bulgaricus. (Image: Courtesy of Mullan, Michael. (2014). Starter…
Using Bulk-Tank Somatic Cell Counts for Monitoring Milk Quality and Udder Health
Bulk-tank somatic cell counts (BTSCCs) are measured and monitored from Federal Milk Marketing Orders (FMMOs) to determine the quality of the milk supply in the U.S. BTSCCs are defined as the number of white blood cells, secretory cells, and squamous cells per milliliter of raw milk. Milk processors monitor BTSCCs in the nation’s milk shipments…
Impact of Bacteriophages in Dairy Processing – Part 1
The quality of milk can be negatively impacted by multiple sources of contamination in a dairy processing plant. Previous blogs focused primarily on microbial contamination of raw milk caused by various bacteria. For products such as cheese and yogurt, starter culture bacteria play a positive and essential role. However, the fermentation function of starter cultures can be threatened by another microbial contamination, bacteriophages, or phages as…
