New Methods for UV Treatment of Milk For Improved Food Safety And Product Quality

A novel Ultraviolet (UV) system was shown to be capable of reliably achieving in excess of a 3 log10 reduction in bacteria measured as standard plate, psychrotrophic, coliform and thermoduric counts. Sensory analysis indicated that excessive or improper treatment may affect milk flavor so that care must be taken in the way that UV treatment is applied. Possible applications include treatment of milk fed to calves to reduce disease transmission, cold treatment of raw milk, reduction of bacteria not susceptible to thermal treatment, psychrotrophic reduction in refrigerated milk stored for prolonged periods, and bacteria reduction to improve milk quality where lack of a reliable energy supply and high cost make on-farm refrigeration prohibitive.