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Quality all the way with raw milk payment analysis

Efficient milk payment analysis of a wide range of parameters ensures fair payment and profitability for dairy farmers while improving the quality of the raw milk supply.

Milk payment

Milk output and demand has risen sharply over recent decades. In response, dairy farms are becoming fewer, but bigger. Operational costs and productivity are in focus, but so too is the need to meet consumer interest in animal welfare, use of antibiotics and organic farming methods. Above all, sustainability is top-of-mind for the industry and consumers alike.

Living up to high demands for productivity on the one hand and quality standards and good farm practice on the other can be a challenge for any dairy farmer. Inconsistencies in compositional quality for parameters such as fat and protein (and casein) can compromise dairy production. Poor hygiene can affect shelf life. Accidental or deliberate adulteration can threaten food safety.

Streamlined and automated milk payment analysis are more relevant than ever in ensuring that the industry can uphold quality standards while helping farmers to continuously improve the productivity and sustainability of the raw milk supply.

rmt industry standards

 

 

Setting industry standards

 

FOSS solutions for milk payment have a unique level of compliance with international industry standards.

Improve raw milk quality while reducing costs

Consistent analysis of key parameters such as fat, protein, casein and many more is the foundation on which the quality of raw milk can be continuously improved. Just one example is the way that advanced milk analysis pioneered by FOSS allows casein to be analysed more accurately as part of normal routine milk testing. This allows you to give farmers information on individual cows allowing them to manage breeding and feeding for optimal casein content.

 

Farmers can gain improved payment levels and the dairy can adjust the casein to fat ratio of the cheese milk to get the most out of the milk supply. As a general rule, one additional kilogram of casein in the milk supply means three to four kilograms more cheese.

 

Consistent analytical performance also minimises the cost of instrument maintenance and calibration while ensuring high operational efficiency in the laboratory.

 

The consistency of analysis starts with highly stable and accurate analysers and extends to all aspects of instrument maintenance and calibration.

 

Instruments are standardised to measure the same from instrument to instrument and over time. Design features such as self-cleaning pipettes make it easy to measure even the most difficult samples quickly and efficiently.

 

Complementing the well-proven instrumentation, networking and operational software makes instrument management straightforward. For instance, automatic sample tracing avoids handling errors and preventive maintenance of the instruments according to our recommendations keeps instruments performing optimally.

 

Completing the picture, FOSS analysers are delivered with calibrations based on the unique and comprehensive FOSS database built up over decades of activity in the raw milk testing area. A very robust calibration can be developed to cover many dimensions in the measurement such as race, feeding, season and region. This reduces the number of calibrations required to meeting demands for different tests. When handling updates to calibrations, the fact that instruments are standardised offers a great advantage. A calibration developed on one instrument may be transferred to other instruments, which due to the standardisation will provide identical readings.

 

Networking software for calibration management

Testing raw milk with infrared instruments requires data collection from both reference analysis and the sample types involved to build calibrations that reflect natural variations in samples, for example due to seasonal variation in feed for dairy cows.

 

The connectivity features of FOSS solutions and supporting networking software make it simple and cost effective to manage analytical operations. For instance, an update to a calibration can be installed on a master instrument and then shared across all instruments in different locations at the click of a mouse button. Such an approach also allows a specialist to monitor and manage remote instruments while operators do not need any specific knowledge and training and can simply run their samples.

 

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Raise the hygiene level with fully approved rapid bacteria count

 

 

Milk with a high bacterial load is an undesirable raw material for dairy production. Although pasteurisation kills the majority of bacteria, their metabolites may cause off-flavours, and enzymes continue their activities resulting in product defects and reduction of shelf life. Most milk payment schemes therefore grade milk according to the level of bacteria.

 

Traditional plate count methods require at least two days of incubation before a result can be reported back to the farmer. Hygienic problems may go undetected for days, making corrective action more difficult and production losses larger than necessary.

 

Traditional plate count methods require at least two days of incubation before a result can be reported back to the farmer. Hygienic problems may go undetected for days, making corrective action more difficult and production losses larger than necessary. In contrast, the BactoScan™ FC+ delivers results in less than nine minutes. This allows warning about possible hygiene breaches to be issued the same day as the sample is drawn. The farmer is empowered to correct for leaks, insufficient cleaning or cooling in the milking system, or health problems in the herd.

 

Rapid method approved in USA and Europe

The FOSS BactoScan FC+ instrument is the only rapid method for testing bacteria count in raw milk to be approved by both the EU Reference Labs (EU-RL)) and NCIMS/ FDA in the USA.

 

The EU-RL certification of the BactoScan FC+ has been performed in accordance with EN ISO/DIS 16140-2:2013, the EURL MMP criteria and the Microval Rules and Certification Scheme. In short, this validates the BactoScan FC+ as a method which is least equivalent to reference method based on plate counting of bacteria colony forming units (EN-ISO 4833-1:2013, parts 1 and 2).

Make food safety screening a natural part of raw milk payment analysis

 

milk samples

 

Raw milk is prone to accidental or deliberate contamination within the supply chain. The problem is greater in developing milk industries, but even the most well-established dairy farming and delivery systems can suffer from accidental contamination, for example, with cleaning fluids used to clean tanker trucks.

 

A smart line of defense is that the same analytical equipment used for raw milk analysis can also perform checks for possible adulteration at the same time.

 

Exploiting powerful FTIR technology, the MilkoScan™ 7 provides the most precise and widest scope of adulteration screening capabilities in the industry. You can check for deliberate or accidental adulteration while performing normal quality control tests.

Free Fatty Acids tests hold the key to better handling

 

The ability to test Free Fatty Acids shows how a single test can give critical insights for improvements in raw milk operations. It provides data that helps to identify possible damage to milk quality through lipolysis

 

A too high content of Free Fatty Acids (FFA) can cause a bitter taste in milk and rancidity in butter.

 

Free Fatty Acids occur when the milk fat is broken down into glycerol and free fatty acids through a chemical reaction called lipolysis, which is caused by lipase enzymes in the milk. There are two sources of lipase. One is a natural presence secreted into the milk while still in the cow and the other is bacteria entering the milk after milking and producing lipase either by excessive aeration or by agitation of the milk. The fat is exposed to attack by the lipase resulting in an increase in FFA during subsequent storage.

 

Thermal and mechanical treatment of the milk, such as milking, pumping, sloshing, temperature changes and transport, can result in an increase of FFA. The level of FFA is also influenced by physiological conditions such as stage of lactation, seasonal changes, age of cow, milk yield, hormonal changes, diseases and composition of fodder. FFA is easily measured by MilkoScan™ 7.

Explore the value of efficient milk payment analysis

Get in touch with our specialists to learn how the latest developments in analytical technology can improve milk payment services. Let's talk

CombiFoss™ 7

CombiFoss™ 7 provides raw milk testing for 19 parameters in 6 seconds, including somatic cell count (SCC) and differential SCC. 

Seamless integration of MilkoScan™ 7 RM (FTIR) and Fossomatic™ 7 (flow cytometry) in one analysis unit.
 
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CombiFoss raw milk analyser
MilkoScan 7

MilkoScan™ 7 RM

A high capacity, fully automatic analyser for testing payment and dairy herd samples.

The MilkoScan™ 7 RM delivers fast, reliable results for Ketosis screening, fatty acid profiling and more. IDF and AOAC compliant. Available as part of the CombiFoss™ 7.

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BactoScan FC+™

Analysing bacteria in raw milk in 9 minutes.

 

Delivering results in just minutes, BactoScan FC+™ allows farmers or milk testing laboratories to take action fast to preserve and enhance milk quality.

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BactoScan FC Bacteria analysis in raw milk

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