🏭 Dairy plant

A dairy plant is a factory that turns raw milk from farms into drinking milk and other products: kefir, yogurt, curd cheese, sour cream, butter and milk powder. The main goal of processing is to make milk safe and help it keep longer.

This is how milk moves through the plant. First it is received: it is tested in the lab and cooled. Then a separator splits the milk into cream and skimmed milk. Some of the cream is added back to get the right fat content. Then the milk is homogenized: the fat globules are broken up so that the cream does not rise to the top. After that it is pasteurized: usually heated to 72 °C for 15 seconds and cooled straight away. Finally, the milk is filled into cartons and bottles.

Each product has its own route. For kefir and yogurt, milk is fermented with a starter culture; for butter, cream is churned; for milk powder, the water is removed. The dairy industry grew together with cities in the 19th century. The first factory for making cheese on an industrial scale opened in Switzerland in 1815. A modern plant employs process engineers, lab technicians, mechanics and line operators.