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Effective Methods for Postharvest Intervention in Dairy Processing

USDA-ARS, National Animal Disease Center, Bacterial Diseases of Livestock Research Unit, 2300 Dayton Rd., Ames, IA 50010

Corresponding author: J. R. Stabel; e-mail: jstabel{at}nadc.ars.usda.gov.

Food safety has become a top priority for regulatory agencies in the United States. Illness and/or death due to contamination of food products with zoonotic pathogens are rare in the United States, but it does occur. Recent outbreaks of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) in the United Kingdom have increased concerns about contamination or transmission of pathogens, from farm animals to consumers. Raw milk contains a number of pathogens and the potential is high for these pathogens to cause disease in consumers if milk is not adequately treated to destroy or reduce the pathogen load. Proper intervention methods during the processing of food products significantly reduce the risks of transmission of infectious agents from the farm to the table. This paper summarizes methods of intervention used by dairy processing plants to improve the safety of dairy products for consumers. Methods include: inactivation by heat (pasteurization and ultra-high temperature), high hydrostatic pressure and mild heat, irradiation, pulsed electric fields, and fermentation. The efficacy of these methods for inactivation of pathogens such as Listeria, Yersinia, Salmonella, enteropathogenic Escherichia coli, bovine leukemia virus, FMDV, and Mycobacterium paratuberculosis is consistently high. However, dairy products may potentially be contaminated postprocessing in the dairy plant, and this potential must be considered when assessing the safety of dairy products for human consumption.

Key Words: dairy processing • intervention • pathogen • postharvest

Abbreviation key: BLV = bovine leukemia virus, FMDV = foot-and-mouth disease virus, HACCP = hazard analysis critical control point, PEF = pulsed electric fields