582. Immersion cleaning of milking equipment

Abstract

A method of cleaning milking equipment is described which involves the immersion of all items coming into contact with milk in a caustic soda solution for the whole period between milkings. It is expected that this method of maintaining the equipment in satisfactory bacteriological condition would need less attention to detail than existing techniques. The procedure outlined may only be applied to apparatus which can be packed into a basket no larger than can be readily handled. It therefore applies only to direct-to-can milking equipment, and suitable milking and immersion cleaning apparatus are described.The process has been tried for a year on 8 commercial farms. The results are promising in that milk of good quality has been consistently produced, but the bacteriological state of the milking clusters was often below present standards. Deposition of calcium soap and inorganic calcium salts was marked on farms where the total hardness of the water was of the order of 200 p.p.m. Work is continuing.