Milk Handling, Processing Practices and Quality Evaluation

The study was conducted in Abuna Gindeberet district, west Shewa zone of Oromia region to evaluate milk handling, processing practices and physiochemical and microbial quality. Six PAs were purposively selected in proportion to the size of PAs, dairy cattle potential and accessibility from highland, midland and lowland agro-ecologies. Households who owned at least one lactating dairy cow and producing milk and milk products during the study period were the targeted population. A total of 155 smallholder dairy producers were randomly selected based on proportional from each PAs and interviewed individually using semi-structured questionnaire. For milk quality evaluation, 30 samples of raw cow milk were collected from producers during milking and transported to laboratory. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software version 24.0. The result showed that hand milking was entirely the milking system practiced in the study area. In the area, 88%, 10% and 2% of the respondent have experience of using “Okole” in Afan Oromo made from woven grass, plastic buckets and metal bucket for milking, respectively. Whereas Clay Pot “Buchuma” in Afan Oromo (51.6%), Calabash/Gourd “Qabee Aannanii” in Afan Oromo (34.2%) and Plastic (14.2%), were the major utensils used for milk storage. The overall mean (±SD) of raw cow’s milk for moisture, fat, SNF, Lactose, protein, ash and total solid were 86.04±1.10, 4.19±0.70, 9.77±0.58, 5.39±0.31, 3.53±0.26, 0.78±0.09 and 13.96±1.10, respectively. The results differ significantly (p>0.05) among the three agro-ecologies. Alcohol test result indicated that of the total samples, 60%, 23.3% and 16.7% were normal milk, curd forming milk and slightly precipitated milk and the results did not differ(p>0.05) among the three agro-ecologies. The overall mean (±SD) of total bacteria count (TBC), Coliform Count (CC), and Yeast & Mold of sampled raw milk were 5.99±0.35log10cfu/ml, 8.13±0.31log10cfu/ml, 7.24±0.21log10cfu/ml, respectively. The results did not differ (p>0.05) among the three agro-ecologies. Based on the result of the present study, it is evident that poor milk handling and processing practices undertaken in the study area that need urgent intervention by concerned stakeholders. Furthermore, it is recommended to conduct research in multidisciplinary and controlled experiments.