Dairy Processing and Quality Assurance: An Overview

Dairy processing involves conversion of raw milk into fluid milk products, and an array of dairy products such as butter, yogurt and fermented milks, cheeses, dry milk powders, dry whey products, ice cream, and frozen desserts, and refrigerated desserts. It also involves chemical, microbiological, physical, and engineering principles and it is imperative to understand them for effective management of a dairy plant. This chapter deals with major dairy products and outlines basic dairy processes used for making them. Dairy products may be classified as fluid milk products, butter and butter products, concentrated and dry milk products, cultured milk products, cheese products, whey products, and ice cream and frozen desserts. The chapter talks about quality assurance measures for dairy operation. Finally, it provides a synopsis of the contents of the various chapters of this book.