Great Lakes Dairy Sheep Symposium - the Department of Animal ...

The Vermont Cheese Council (www.vtcheese.com) has published a “Code of Best Practice,”
which sets down GMP’s used in making, aging, and selling cheese. There is also a section on
creating a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) program for a cheese business.
The same concepts are adaptable to businesses making other processed milk products. It is wise
to become familiar with HACCP because this is the direction that the milk industry is moving in
to produce safer dairy products.
The Dairy Practices Council (www.dairypc.org) publishes “guidelines” concerning issues
such as animal housing, parlor construction, vacuum pump installation, waste management,
cleaning and sanitation, milk quality, and HACCP systems for the dairy industry.
The interpretation of the PMO varies from state to state. Vermont has a relatively relaxed
regulatory climate compared to other states. The days of legal retail sales of bottled raw milk are
gone, but the inspectors will work with small-scale milk processors to find solutions to
burdensome regulations, e.g., innovative vat pasteurizer designs and using wooden shelving for
aging cheese. Listed below are some of the important aspects of the regulations that must be
considered for the farmstead milk processor:
1. Construction of milking parlor and milk storage room
• smooth, impermeable materials
• easily cleaned
• covered floor drains
• well ventilated
• separate hand washing sink and towels
• screens to keep out flies and rodents
• mandatory monthly milk testing for antibiotics, total bacteria, fat, and somatic cells;
results must be posted in the milk room
2. Construction of production, storage and aging facilities
• smooth, impermeable materials
• easily cleaned
• covered floor drains
• well ventilated
• separate hand washing sink in production room and towel dispenser
• bathroom in the production facility if there are employees other than immediate family
members working in the business
• physically separated raw storage and receiving area if making pasteurized dairy products
• protocol for board sanitation if using wooden shelving for aging cheese
• product contact surfaces must be stainless steel or food-grade plastic
• welds on all milk/product contact surfaces must be “3A”, which means highly polished
(expensive to make)
• coolers and cheese aging rooms do not need drains but the floors must be sloped to the
doorways so that they can be cleaned and dried
• storage tanks that are cleaned in place must have chart temperature recorders to show
time/temp of milk storage and cleaning cycle
19