🔄 Milk reception

Milk reception is the first stage of handling milk at the plant. A milk tanker arrives, and the plant decides whether to accept the milk. First, the smell and taste are checked, and samples are taken for the lab. Milk with antibiotics must not be accepted: it is rejected.

The amount of milk is measured. The tanker is weighed on a truck scale, or the milk is passed through a flow meter. An air separator is fitted before the flow meter, because air bubbles would distort the reading. On the way in, the milk passes through a mesh filter. Then it is cooled in a plate cooler to +4 °C or lower.

After that, the milk is pumped into silo tanks. These are large insulated tanks holding 50,000–500,000 litres, which usually stand outdoors. The stirrers in them run slowly and with breaks: the cream must not rise, but the milk must not be frothed either. Sensors watch the level and temperature. Under EU rules, if accepted milk is not processed within 4 hours, it must be quickly cooled to no more than 6 °C and kept that way until processing.