Influence of the microbiological quality of raw milk on the shelf life of pasteurized milk

The dairy industry strives to produce high quality products with high nutritional value as well as to meet the legal standards for longer shelf life. However, these goals are made unfeasible by the poor quality of raw milk produced in some regions of Brazil. Others Brazilian dairy regions, however, already succeed in producing milk with low microbial counts, such as the municipality of Castro, Parana state, designated as the 'Brazilian dairy capital'. In order to evaluate the effect of raw milk quality on microbial counts during the shelf life of pasteurized milk, samples were collected from two dairy regions of Parana: the northern and Castro region, characterized by milk production with high and low microbiological counts, respectively. Samples were experimentally pasteurized and the total microorganism counts were analyzed for 18 days at 7 degrees C, using the Brazilian standard microbiological count limit for pasteurized milk (8 x 10(4) CFU/mL) as the end of the shelf life. Low microbiological counts in raw milk (Castro) resulted in significantly lower counts shortly after pasteurization and over the entire shelf life, meeting the pasteurized milk standard for 18 days. The temporal evolution in the counts over 18 days for the milks of high and low microbiological count was similar; however, the disparity between the absolute counts between the regions was significant (p < 0.05). Of the milk samples from northern Parana, four (44.4%) already had counts higher than that of the legislative limit for pasteurized milk immediately after pasteurization. The others (five) reached the maximum microbiological count limit for pasteurized milk on the 6th day after pasteurization. In contrast, the milk from the Castro region remained below the limit throughout the analysis period. Thus, it can be stated that the microbiological quality of raw milk is directly related to the initial count of microorganisms after pasteurization, and that pasteurized milk produced from raw milk with low microbiological counts complies with the Brazilian legislation for 18 days following thermal processing.