QUALITY AND SAFETY CHARACTERISTICS OF MILK SOLD IN THE STATE OF KUWAIT

ABSTRACT

The food chain operational links for locally produced and imported milk were prepared. Quality and safety assessment of milk were also carried out by collecting raw milk samples from the farms, and pasteurized milk from retail and wholesale outlets. Milk samples were analyzed for pH, titratable acidity, clot on boiling, aflatoxin M1, antibiotic residues, and microbiological quality and safety. Results have shown that the mean pH and acidity of raw milk were 6.83 and 0.180%, while the mean pH and acidity values for local and imported pasteurized milk were 6.9 and 0.170%, and 6.8 and 0.150%, respectively. Furthermore, all raw and pasteurized milk samples were negative for the clot on boiling test and were within the allowable limits for aflatoxin M1 and antibiotic residues. However, raw milk samples collected from the local dairy farms were unacceptable because of the high somatic cell count and high Staphylococcus aureus counts.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Securing an adequate food supply for the nation has always been the fundamental concern of Kuwait's policy makers. Under local Kuwaiti conditions, with high temperatures over most of the year and the high level of imported products with unknown histories, combined with handling by unskilled labors, food losses can be excessive. This situation creates marketing problems for some of the highly perishable foods like milk. The baseline data of milk losses obtained during this study would help to bring about improvements in storage, handling and distribution practices and develop recommendations for private/public agencies to adopt technologies for improving milk losses. Furthermore, since there are no accurate statistics on milk losses in Kuwait, these primary data could be used to determine the economic values of milk losses in Kuwait.