In our last Dairy Foods’ column in June, we examined the spoilage organisms found in pasteurized milk. If you recall, I talked about ruining my breakfast cereal with off-flavored or spoiled milk. In this article, we are going to look at some of the issues that affect the quality of milk before pasteurization.
Whether you are pasteurizing with HTST, HHST, or UP type equipment, one fact remains: milk will never improve in quality after it leaves the cow, but it can deteriorate during each step of its journey to that breakfast cereal.