Seasonality and Geography Have a Greater Influence than the Use of Chlorine-Based Cleaning Agents on the Microbiota of Bulk Tank Raw Milk.

ABSTRACT: Cleaning of the production environment is vital to ensure the safety and quality of dairy products. Although cleaning with chlorine-based agents is widely adopted, it has been associated with detrimental effects on milk quality and safety, which has garnered increasing interest in chlorine-free cleaning. However, the influence of these methods on the milk microbiota is not well documented. This study investigated the factors that influence the raw milk microbiota, with a focus on the differences when chlorine-based and chlorine-free cleaning of milking equipment are used. Bulk tank raw milk was sampled during three sampling months (April, August, and November), from farms across Ireland selected to capture the use of different cleaning methods, i.e., exclusively chlorine-based (n = 

SUBMITTER: Yap M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8552886 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature