Many senior management, plant management, supervisors and dairy plant processing staff members do not have the technical knowledge required to properly carry out their responsibilities. In addition, many new personnel entering the dairy processing world do not have the necessary education or experience to make a positive contribution to their plant or company within a reasonable amount of time. This workshop will introduce attendees to the technical details of operating a dairy processing plant, including basic dairy chemistry, microbiology, quality assurance, model written operational programs, operational characteristics of major pieces of dairy processing equipment, operation of a dairy laboratory, the state and federal regulatory dairy environment and basic pasteurization technologies and requirements. Also covered will be the characteristics of many common dairy products, how they are processed and cause of possible defects.