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So here's the deal, the dairy factory gets the milk from farms, up to thousands of gallons a day. Some of the raw milk is made into milk for direct consumption and some of it is used to make other dairy products for the people living in the area. The excess milk is sent on to even bigger dairy factories where it is made into products like yogurt or milk powder.
- The raw milk is transported in refrigerated trucks to make sure the milk does not develop harmful bacteria.
- Once it arrives at the factory, the milk is checked for the right temperature and filled into large holding containers.
- The milk is then pasteurized. Pasteurization is a heating process that kills potentially harmful bacteria.
- A clarification process involving a sort of strainer filters out stuff that isn't supposed to be in milk.
- Keep in mind that the milk in the huge holding containers comes from different cows and different farms. That is why it needs to be brought to a standard fat level, a process which is called homogenization. The fat particles in the milk are made into equal sizes and spread evenly through the milk. Otherwise, the fat particles would rise to the top to form a creamy layer. The excess milk fat from this process will be made into butter and other products.
- Once again the milk is tested and flows across a series of cold steel plates to cool down.
- The milk is poured into a refrigerated holding container.
- Milk is then pumped to different parts of the factory to be processed into whole milk, low-fat and skim milk. At this point it might be flavored, by adding chocolate or other flavors.
- From there the milk is either filled into different packages (bottles or cartons) or transported elsewhere for further processing (like making sour cream, whipping cream, yogurt, cheese etc.)
- Refrigerated trucks then bring the packaged and labeled milk to the local grocery store, to schools, or directly to homes.
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