The effect of raw milk collection and primary cooling regimes on the stability of quality indicators

Abstract

The study evaluates the effects of primary cooling temperature and storage duration on the stability of physicochemical and microbiological quality parameters of raw cow milk. Freshly collected milk was evaluated under storage temperatures of 4±1, 6±1, 8±1, and 20±2 °C for 4, 8, 12, and 24 h. Titratable acidity, pH, density, fat, protein, lactose, total solids, solids-not-fat, and total microbial count were considered as the main quality indicators. The results showed that rapid cooling to 4±1 °C following milking and filtration provided the most favorable conditions for maintaining the initial quality of raw milk. Increasing the storage temperature to 6-8 °C accelerated physicochemical and microbiological changes, while storage at 20±2 °C resulted in a pronounced deterioration after 8-12 h. Integration of milk collection, primary quality control, filtration, rapid cooling, refrigerated storage, and transportation into a single controlled technological chain is proposed as an effective approach to maintaining raw milk quality stability.