Goat and sheep milk is collected from small flocks in scattered villages, and most farms have no cooling tank, so the cooling problem starts on the road, not in the tank. The natural inhibitors in milk keep bacterial numbers from rising significantly for the first three to four hours after milking. FAO recommends reaching 4 °C within that time to keep quality.
Limits in the regulation
The Turkish Regulation on Specific Hygiene Rules for Food of Animal Origin requires milk to be cooled immediately after milking: to no more than 8 °C if collected daily and no more than 6 °C if not. The cold chain is kept in transport, and milk arriving at the processing plant may not exceed 10 °C. If the milk is processed within 2 hours of milking, these temperature conditions need not be met.
Round and record. Milk age sets the round: the farm that finished milking earliest and has no cooling is the first stop. Compare the time to the plant of the first batch collected with the last, and repeat the comparison on the same records when the route changes. At every pick-up write the farm, batch, container, milking or collection time and milk temperature. If a problem appears, the farm it came from can only be separated before the milk goes into the shared tank.
In an uninsulated churn the milk warms on the road in summer; an insulated container slows the heat gain. The regulation requires surfaces in contact with milk to be smooth, washable and non-toxic, and transport containers to be cleaned and disinfected after every transport.
