Cold storage warehouse in the dairy industry is essential to ensure your food safety. If we think of some basic complete food in our daily diet, what is the first that comes to mind? It is clear – The milk products. Although all dairy products have similar properties, they need very different conditions for their refrigeration and industrial preservation. Do you know what are its optimal conditions in an industrial freezer warehouse? We explain it to you.
Dairy Industry Refrigeration Room: Milk:
The best system for treating, storing, and preserving milk, transporting and consuming it, is to cool it to a sufficiently low temperature and for a limited time.
The effectiveness of cooling to maintain milk quality depends on several factors:
Conservation temperature:
Cooling milk to a temperature between 3 and 4º slows the growth of germs. Currently, a milk storage temperature of 4 C is recommended in most countries as the most effective for controlling bacterial growth. A temperature below 3 C can lead to freezing phenomena that must be avoided, as they can alter the composition and quality of the milk.
The storage period:
Regardless of the temperature at which the milk is stored, the longer the storage period, the greater the bacterial growth.
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Initial contamination of the product:
The number of germs that are already present in the milk when cooling begins is a factor that is very important for good results. To obtain milk of good bacteriological quality, it is not enough to cool it and keep it cold, but the whole process of milking and storage must also be carried out with rigorous hygiene. So, poor quality results are not necessarily due to a malfunction from the freezer warehouse tank.
Cooling speed:
The initial cooling rate at the cold storage warehouse of the milk is another factor that influences the total number of germs since practically instantaneous cooling is not the same as a longer-lasting one.
For about two hours after milking the growth of the bacteria is very slow to subsequently increase rapidly. For this reason, it is necessary to take advantage of this period to cool the milk to the storage temperature.
Dairy Industry Refrigeration Room: Cheese:
Correct industrial refrigeration of cheese in cold rooms or maturing in dryers is essential. Cheese is the product that results from a selective concentration of the components of milk, through coagulation and extraction of a serum that carries the soluble components of milk.
The constitution of fresh cheese includes casein, insoluble salts, and colloidal substances, as well as part of the milk water in which we find lactose, albumin, salts, and other milk constituents.
The already drained clot is placed in molds, salted, and preserved in ripening chambers, where the cheese takes on its own final characteristics.
The quality of milk is of great importance in making high-quality cheeses, where all known varieties of cheeses have their common origin in milk.
Regardless of the fresh type cheeses, made without ferments, and which are therefore kept during the marketing period at a temperature of 0-4ºC, the application of refrigerated warehouse temperatures is intended not to stop but to the contrary.
Thanks to a temperature and suitable relative humidity, to develop beneficial microorganisms and desirable enzymatic activities. Only at the end of the maturation period, in the whey, pressing, and salting stage, temperatures of 12-18º C are used in the premises equipped for each effect; relative humidity is not critical (85-89%) as the residence period is not long. When salting is done wet, brines are used at 10-12º C.
After salting, it is necessary to dry the cheeses in cool places (10-14ºC), with a relative humidity of 60-80% so that excess water from the surface of the cheeses is removed relatively quickly.
This manufacturing stage is essential for all types of cheese, except in the case of fresh pasta. It is also in this period when the intervention of cold is delicate. That is not because of the temperatures to be used, but because of the very high relative humidity (in some types, close to 95% or higher). Air circulation is critical to achieving a homogeneous atmosphere, both in temperature and relative humidity.
Dairy refrigeration:
Creams, yogurts, butter, cheeses, ice creams, powdered or packaged milk: each dairy product requires impeccable control of temperature at cold storage warehouse and relative humidity at each stage of its production process to prevent the proliferation of bacteria and microorganisms, homogenize its qualities and guarantee impeccable hygiene.
An industrial refrigerated warehouse system is crucial for the treatment and transformation of dairy at every stage of the process: from the pasteurization of milk to the maturation of cheeses.
If you want to start your profitable cold storage warehouse, do not hesitate to contact us at Natural Storage Solutions Pvt. Ltd. We have years of experience in this field and we offer a comprehensive service in cold storage.
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