Qualifying appraisal of delivery milk in milk collection centers at Qom province.

This study was carried out to investigate the quality of delivery raw milk in milk collection centers at Qom province. 240 milk samples from 12 milk collection centers were gathered and analyzed. In the first and last weak of the middle month of summer and winter, one milk sample was gathered from bulk tank of all milk collection centers. Also in each center, at least 3 samples of delivery milk were gathered before carrying the milk to the bulk tanks. Sanitation statue and management informations of some dairy farms in each center were asked through the questionnaires. All milk samples were sent to the lab immediately, and Total Plate Count (TPC) was determined. Standard Plate Count (SPC) procedure was employed to determine the number of visible colony-forming units (numbers of individual or tightly associated clumps of bacteria) in 1 ml. of milk samples. Also chemical composition of raw milk were determined through the spectophotometery procedure by the milkoscan device. As a result, the season had a significant effect on TPC,fat,protein and solids percentage of raw milk (p0.01) while the kind of the milk collection center and the location of them had not (p0.05). The mean of TPC of raw milk,fat,protein and solids percentage were 2.39×106 cfu/mil,11.44%,2.79% and 3.09% at summer,and were 5.88×105 cfu/mil,12.34%,3.15% and 3.36% at winter respectively. The averages of two mentioned season for TPC of raw milk,fat,protein and solids percentage were 1.49×106 cfu/mil, 11.84%,2.97% and 2.88% respectively. Among all studied milk collection centers, Laban cooperative had the minimum amount of TPC of raw milk with the average of 5.32×105 cfu/mil and Jafarieh cooperative had the maximum TPC with the average of 3.86×106 cfu/mil. Also nearly, chemichal composition of raw milk in all studied milk collection centers had a deviation from standard levels.