Tips To Improve Contaminant Detection In The Dairy Industry

By Doug Pedersen, Sesotec Inc.

The Dairy Industry presents its own set of challenges regarding reducing the risk of foreign materials in fluid milk, butter, cheese, yogurt, ice cream and powders. While each process starts with the same primary ingredient — milk — the end product, processes and packaging vary, making each of these products similar, but different, in terms of the best solutions for contaminant detection.

The further the milk is processed, the higher the risk is of contaminants entering the production stream, either from machinery or additional ingredients. Milk products are shipped from the dairy to retail sales outlets and to industrial facilities further processing. The detection sensitivities on retail milk products need to be much higher than products destined for industrial use. Milk products destined for industrial use will ultimately have retail-level inspection when these materials are combined to make retail products.