Malta Dairy Products Ltd.

Aim: To investigate how Milk and other dair products are manufactured. History: Sir David Bruce and Sir Temi Zammit discovered the Brucella Melitensis in milk which used to cause Brucellosis. The National Dairy started in 1938 by MMU (Milk Marketing Unit) to pasturize the milk from this Brucella Melitensis. The MMU worked till 1986 MDP (Malta Dairy Products) took over from 1986 onwards. The KPH, Oemolk and MDC where shareholders. Today 70% of the shares go to the KPH and 30% go to the Malta Enterprise. The Malta Dairy Products is EU certified. What is Milk? Milk is a substance important for our bones because it contains Phosphorus and Calcium. In animals it is used to nurture the young and it varies from animal to animal. Breas-Feeding is highly reccomended for new borns. Milk is nature s nearly perfect food because the only thing it s missing is fibre. That is why it s recommended to eat cereal which is high in fibre with milk. A person should at least consume half a litre of milk everyday. Women after menopause should take more to avoid Ostiopolasis. Maltese are the least people in EU who drink Milk. Long Life Milk is not recommended because it may have been subjected to very high temperatures. High

temperatures have a negative effect on the nutrients and they may not be present anymore. All Benna products are exposed to low temperatures. Milk Productions: In Malta we have 128 farms, 7 of which are worked with latest technology, with an average of 60 cows each. All herdsmen are Co-operative members of KPH. Cows have to have babies before giving milk. Gestation period of a cow but at the age of 1 and 3 months a cow is ready to have a baby. A cow has a baby every year. The calf stays with its mother for 3 days, then when it s taken away, it s given a small portion from the mother s milk. Each cow gives 22 litres of milk a day. Cows are milke twice a day. A cow keeps giving milk for 10 months after the baby is born, which is called the Lactation Period. Most dairy cows are Friesian or Holstein. The cows are ruminants and there is symbiosis with cellulose digesting material in the stomach. Wheat and hay and other food materials are given as pellets to cows with fodder to produce more nutrtional millk with more fibre. 40% of agricultural land are used to grow cow s fodder. Cow s need to be taken care of. They have to be in constant cool temperatures because every 10rC rise in temperatures, there is a decrease of 1 litre in the milk produced. Cows need to be stress free. Milking the Cows: Cows are milked in a milking parlour. 20 cows are milked in one parlour. The cow is cleaned before being milked. Tubes are also cleaned from the milk. Milk is taken from the cow, in tubes and then to a cooler which is below 6rC. This is to stop bacteria

in the milk from growing.The nutrients in the milk are not affected.

At the Malta Dairy Products: Farmers get the milk to MDP in a Raw Milk Tank. Raw Milk tanks take up to 50 tons, tank is cleaned afterwards. Milk from Gozo is kept in a cooler in Gozo, then a tanke of 35 tons capacity is sent everyday to get the milk. The Milk is taken in by a milk intake machine which calculates the volume of milke and records the intake of milk for each farmer. Each farmer has his own registration number. Samples are taken and checked for fat, protein, lactase and health in herd. If there is a high number of somatic cells in the samples it means the cow had some microbe. In the Bactosan milk is checked for level of bacteria. The farmers are payed according to a Quality Paying Scheme according to the Hygene level, Health level, Fat percentage and the Protein Percentage. All the milk is pasteurized. It is heated to 78rC for 15 seconds. This kills the Pathogens but not the nutrients. The milk is then stored in tanks. Liquid Products Fresh Milk is stored in cartons after Pasteurization. There is a milk-filling machines which first opens the cartons and the bottoms are sealed using heat, then the cartons are

filled with milk. Their tops are sealed and the Use by Day date is printed on top. In another machine cartons are picked up in groups of 16 and a stored in a store where the temperature is 4C. The following morning distributors distribute fresh milk to all food retailers. Flavoured pasteurised milk is produced by adding natural flavours and colours to the fresh milk. Yogurts There are 3 types of yogurts; Light, Full Fat and Desert Yogurts. The light yogurts are made from skimmed milk so that they don t contain any fats. Certain milk is added to the fresh milk to give a thicker consistency. The mix is then heated 90rC to kill any remaining bacterias then pumped into a tank. Here, two different species of bacteria (Streptoccus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus) are added to the milk, which is incubated at 35C for 12 hours. The yogurt is then formed and stirred, fruit is added and the resultant product is filled into cups. Irkotta Liquid milk is heated almost until boiling then it is passed into channels where Calcium and Common Salts are added. The calcium reacts with the milk proteins to form a curd that entraps the fat of the milk in it. This makes it lighter than water and so it floats to the surface. Slow moving paddles move the ricotta to the other side of the channel where it is picked by a revolving nylon mesh that drops it in irkotta baskets. The baskets are cooled slightly and then packed in plastic packets. Cheeselets Three kinds of cheeselets are made by Malta Dairy Products Ltd., namely the dried white, dried peppered and the fresh cheeselet. The dried cheeselets

are produced in the same way where the enzyme lipase is added to the fresh milk. Lipase is an enzyme, which acts on the fat content of the milk, to give it that particular cheesy aroma. Rennet is a substance extracted from the stomachs of young calves and contains an enzyme called chymosin which coagulates milk protein when incubated at 37C. The mixture is then put in curds are stacked in a special turning machine where 700 cheeselts at one go are produced. The cheese is then left to harden for 12 hours. The next day these are removed from the block moulds and placed on open stainless steel grids. The grids are palced in brine. The cheese is left in the brine for 4 hours and then removed and placed in special maturation rooms for about 5 days to dry and mature. Some are left as they are and the rest are placed in vinegar overnight and after are mixed with freshly ground pepper to give the peppered cheeselets. Finally all the cheeselets are vacuum packed and weighed individually. The Use by Date and their weight is printed on the package. The fresh cheese have the same process but they are instantly packed after the are out of the spinnin machine. Conclusion: Milk is really important for humans and it is important for the structure of the body since the Calcium and Phosphorus in the milk is really important for the bones. If milk intake is not taken as a liquid, there are several ways and measures like the cheeselets, yogurts and irkotta.