🏭 Dairy plant jobs

Dairy plant jobs are the jobs at a dairy plant: processing milk, checking quality and making cheese. At a dairy plant, raw milk is turned into safe products. The dairy technologist develops recipes and processing regimes; machine operators run separators, pasteurisers, homogenisers and filling lines; cheesemakers handle milk coagulation, curd treatment and cheese ripening; and buttermakers churn cream. A separate team of engineers and mechanics looks after the equipment and cleaning.

The quality control laboratory plays a key role. Lab technicians and microbiologists test raw milk on arrival — fat, protein, acidity, antibiotics and foreign matter — and monitor every stage, from pasteurisation regimes to the microbiological cleanliness of the finished products. Standards for pasteurisation and UHT treatment are set by the international Codex Alimentarius and national regulations.

Cheesemaking is one of the most complex jobs in the industry: the result depends on the milk’s composition, the starter, temperature, humidity and ripening time. According to the FAO, most milk for cheesemaking is pasteurised immediately before use, but a number of traditional cheeses are also made from raw milk under special rules.