Milk Losses

Manufacturing cost of milk and milk products normally comprises 80 to 85% of raw material-milk solids cost. Therefore, effective utilization of milk solids (Fat & Solid-Not-Fat) would be of greater importance/concern to cost control and profitability. Milk (milk solids) losses is the difference of total milk solids inputs and net utilization. Arithmetically, it is determined by subtracting sum of total dispatches and closing stock of milk solids from the sum of milk solids input and opening stock. Properly managed dairy plants normally have very less milk losses during entire processing operations. However, in poorly managed dairy plant, the losses can be very high. Therefore, you can see that an increment in the milk losses directly adds to the production cost.

There are other important implication of milk (milk solids) losses in a dairy plant.The milk loss has impact also on hygiene and ecology. The production hygiene has direct influence on the microbial quality of the product, whereas pollution management requires additional cost burden. In this way, we find that cost

addition due to losses makes the product costlier, whereas adverse effect on microbiological quality shortens shelf life and influence food safety aspect. The milk and milk solid losses, therefore, affect the product marketability and so the business viability.