United States Raw Milk Debate - Quality Standards For Milk

Quality Standards For Milk

The methods of determining Grade A milk quality are well-established and outlined in the Grade A Pasteurized Milk Ordinance. These grades are typically related to a measurement known as the somatic cell count (SCC) and the bacteria plate count. Generally a lower somatic cell count indicates better animal health, while the bacteria plate count indicates improved equipment sanitation.

Somatic cells originate only from inside the animal's udder, while bacteria are usually from external contamination, such as insufficient cleaning of the milk transport equipment or insufficient external cleansing of the cow’s udder and teats prior to milking. Milking equipment can also be accidentally knocked or kicked off an animal onto the floor, and contaminants on the barn floor can be sucked into the milk line by the system vacuum. A filter sock or filter disk in the pipeline prevents large particulate contaminants from entering the milk bulk tank, but cannot remove bacterial contamination once it has occurred.

For example as defined by the state of Indiana’s administrative code, Grade A milk shall meet the following standards:

• The bacterial estimate classification shall be "acceptable".
• The bacteria count using the standard plate count, direct microscopic count, or plate loop count methods shall be not more than one million (1,000,000) bacteria per milliliter.
• The somatic cell count shall be not more than one million (1,000,000) cells per milliliter.
• The milk shall not contain drug residues.

Milk not meeting these standards shall be designated as undergrade. Undergrade milk may not be sold for human consumption or processing into products for human consumption.

As established, these measurements are taken daily from the milk bulk tank and not from individual cows. This is because testing of individual animals at each milking would be expensive, but it also means that milk from a sick cow is diluted and averaged down by the healthy animals. Greater bulk tanks at very great commercial farms are accommodating of more sick animals in the herd, without the sick animals affecting the overall milk quality rating.

As discussed in the paper Guidelines for Using the DHI Somatic Cell Count Program

• The results of many studies suggest that cows with SCC of less than 200,000 are not likely to be infected with major mastitis pathogens, but cows with SCC above 300,000 are probably infected (Smith, 1996).
• Herds with bulk tank SCC above 200,000 will have varying degrees of subclinical mastitis present. Data from the National Mastitis Council (1987) show that 6% of the quarters in a herd could be expected to be infected in a herd with a bulk tank SCC of 200,000.
• At 500,000 SCC, 16% of the quarters may be infected with a 6% reduction in milk production compared to a SCC of 200,000.

Bacteria in milk can come from sources other than the animal. Over time the milking pipeline and equipment can become coated with residues such as milkstone which are not removed by standard detergents and require periodic flushing of equipment with high strength corrosives. Automatic washing equipment for the bulk tank may not effectively clean all interior surfaces, and does not clean the exterior of the bulk tank at all.

Some buyers award producers for having the lowest SCC but this does not also lead to an increased payment for the milk quality, so there is no incentive to strive for anything more than meeting the basic grade A SCC rating.