Milk is an important source of dietary protein and fat. It is an important sustainable food source because the dairy cow converts non-human consumable food stuffs into valuable consumable protein. Quality milk must be low in bacterial count to maintain good protein levels and provide adequate shelf life. Bacteria in milk can come from a number of sources including shedding from infected mammary gland (mastitis). Mastitis is a bacterial infection with the dairy farm environment as a prominent source. Preventing mastitis is achieved by post milking teat disinfectants. The disinfectants can be formulated as barrier products, which provide a protective film to prevent bacteria from entering the teat gland. Edible coatings from Dr. Pavlath's USDA team were developed with DeLaval into barrier teat disinfectants. The successful coating material was based on similar requirements for these two seemingly divergent applications: acceptable for food contact, barrier to oxygen and bacteria, application as aqueous liquids.

Edible food coating derived barrier teat disinfectant for milk quality improvement

246th National Meeting (2013)

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