Milk is a fresh product. Due to this reason, the local companies process milk right after collecting it. There are more than a thousand dairy companies in the USA. In each region, you will be able to find many milk processing plants. There are a few plants that only milk filling process while others produce cheese, milk and other dairy products.
Production Process Of Milk
Almost every company follows the basic production process of milk. At present, we are going to discuss the production process properly. Have a look:
Collecting Milk
The first and foremost step is to collect milk. The mechanical vacuum milking machine takes out the milk of each dairy cow two times a day. This raw milk passes through seamless steel tubes or glass pipes. The pipes take it to the refrigerator tank. Here, the tank cools it up to 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
The milk of all cows mixes up in this refrigerator tank. This tank is too big to carry a huge collection of dairy farms. The milk stays in this tank for a couple of hours. There is a monitor who collects the sample of each tank and then checks its taste. When the flavor is good, then the monitor transfers the milk to the processing plant.
Separation
The cold milk of the tank passes through the separator. This separator can spin the milk from a range of conical disks. These disks are useful in removing the bacteria and debris from the milk. In this way, the raw milk becomes clean entirely.
Fortifying & Homogenization
After the clarifying process of milk, the producers add up Vitamins D and A in this milk with the help of a peristaltic pump. The right amount of vitamins mix up well in the flow of the milk.
For additional purification, the milk transfers to the pasteurizer. It can kill the bacteria that are not easy to eliminate. The homogenization is also beneficial to reduce the fat particles present in milk. In this way, the excess fats present in milk come to the surface of the milk in the form of cream.
Filling
When all impurities eliminate from the milk, then the filling process starts. There is a milk filling machine which has a filling line. The workers place bottles on this line. There is a filler head of the milk filling machine which fills up the bottles one after the other. This machine can fill up 130 bottles of milk in just one minute. However, the time depends on the quantity of milk and bottle.
The producers also make use of the bottle blow molding machine. This machine also has several benefits. This bottle blow molding machine can boost up the milk production process. All big milk processing plants make use of milk filling machine and bottle blow molding machine.
Bundling
When the milk bottles are ready, then they are taken to the sealing section. Whether it is a bottle or a carton, there are some countries like the USA where sealing is important. It is time to cool down the bottles once again in the refrigerated trailers. These trailers move to the distribution warehouses from where the bottles go to the small markets.