Hi, Milkfans

I was a judge at the National Dairy Championships held by Agri-Expo in the Bellville Civic Centre, near Cape Town today.  Thanks, Agri-Expo, it was fun as usual.

May the best products win!

Kind regards,

Leon the Milkman

P.S. check out this following link if you judge dairy as well.

Judging dairy products

Hi, Cheesefans

Got a enquiry recently about why Pseudomonas bacteria love cottage cheese so much.

Well, I think it depends a lot on the flavour. 😉

Seriously Pseudomonas are widely distributed and aerobic.  They tend not to use much carbohydrate ( lactose removed from cottage cheese ) and grow well in protein-rich foods (like cottage cheese) producing slime, pigments and some bad odours. They also prefer a high water activity ( high moisture content) and thus cottage cheese is pretty much ideal. Many are also psychrotrophic ( cold-loving ).

Although optimum temperatures are from 15 degrees Celsius to temperate – thus allowing the temperatures to go so high would speed up their growth exponentially.

Goodday to ya,

Leon the Milkman

Hi, Milkfans

 When doing any automated milk analysis you must remember that the apparatus is calibrated against a certain referance. It is not wise to test cow’s milk on an apparatus that has been calibrated with goat’s milk or vice versa. This has to do with the different sizes of the fat globules, etc.

This is also the reason that ( I think) that goat’s milk digest easier than cow’s milk. It has nothing to do with goat’s milk not having any lactose – that’s nonsense.

 All for today,

Leon the Milkman

 

Hi, Milkfans

UHT milk translates to “Ultra High Temperature” Milk and is also known as long-life milk.

It is made by pasteurizing at something like 132-150 degrees Celsius for a second up to 15 seconds.

To prevent problems it is important that the milk is not going sour, that it has the right salt balance and that there is not too much serum proteins ( colostrum ) in the milk.

Put into practice you should get an analysis of salts in “normal” milk and what variance is allowed to test the milk against. Also make sure the farmer does not have too many cows calving at the same time to prevent high colostrum in the milk.

It is a good idea to do an Alcohol Test on the milk with an alcohol strength of 72-75% alcohol. This will give a fast and accurate indication of the heat tolerance of the particular milk.

Regards,
Leon the Milkman