Black Rings in Plastic Milk Gallons
We have an issue with a milk supplier of ours. Every now & then their milk will develop black rings (looks like mold) in the gallon jugs. These rings appear once the milk has been poured out, as if a residue left behind. When the gallon is full, you cannot see this black substance in the milk. Every single one of these occurrences have happened before the expiration date. Does anyone know what this is?
This is an example of what the milk looks like, although this is not our supplier's milk.
I worked in a fluid milk plant for awhile. I never saw this. Judging by the pictures I've now seen online, its appears to happen with some frequency. It certainly looks like mold to me as well.
see recall (decrease shelf life?):
Yes, it does happen more than once a year from our supplier. We weren't able to get the most recent gallon sample that this happened to, but I'm going to have them test it next time.
When this does happen, it is always a one-off. The rest of the shipment is fine, and we don't have this problem with any of our other suppliers. There's got to be something wrong in their process, but I have no idea what would cause this black mold-like substance!
The good news, however is that none of the customers who have consumed this milk have had any adverse health issues!
I worked in a fluid milk plant for awhile. I never saw this. Judging by the pictures I've now seen online, its appears to happen with some frequency. It certainly looks like mold to me as well.
see recall (decrease shelf life?):
Yes, it does happen more than once a year from our supplier. We weren't able to get the most recent gallon sample that this happened to, but I'm going to have them test it next time.
When this does happen, it is always a one-off. The rest of the shipment is fine, and we don't have this problem with any of our other suppliers. There's got to be something wrong in their process, but I have no idea what would cause this black mold-like substance!
The good news, however is that none of the customers who have consumed this milk have had any adverse health issues!
So you are reseller? It is a little odd to me that problem is "one-off". The process is just so fast and automated. Let me guess the supplier response: - "it looks like its been temperature abused"
In 15 years of dairy processing and bottling I've never seen that before. You certainly need to have it tested next time you see it. That's just crazy because for mold to develop in fluid milk it needs to be A LOT of mold due to the nature of the bacterial competition in milk. Usually, you will have a psychrophile or general TPC, or coliform if the sanitation is poor. But mold? I've only seen that in cultured products and cheese of course.
Tells me you need to look for another supplier....the air quality in that plant must be horrible, or the way they handle the bottles. I bet they don't blow mold, and they take bottles from a supplier and run them on the line without any treatment. But still, likely to be sh**ty air quality in the filler room.
If you for some reason get it tested and it isn't mold, the other possible source is rubber particles. If the dairy doesn't have the right gasket materials, a good gasket exchange program, including check balls (rubber coated) and PD pumps (some have rubber impeller lobes), the chemicals in the cleaning will wear on these and you can get rubber that smears off into tiny particles.
I worked in a fluid milk plant for awhile. I never saw this. Judging by the pictures I've now seen online, its appears to happen with some frequency. It certainly looks like mold to me as well.
see recall (decrease shelf life?):