Abstract

Nutritious milk needs to be processed soon after milking to increase its shelf life and make it safe for human consumption. One major factor responsible for milk spoilage is microbial contamination. Freshly drawn milk contains some internal anti-microbial defense mechanism, but for longer storage, some other external anti-microbial preservation steps needs to be initiated to arrest or decontaminate the microbial growth. Different methods of preservation had have been discussed in this review paper, from naturally occurring defense mechanism to thermal and even non-thermal processing methods. This paper aims to provide a short review on conventional milk processing and recent advancements in terms of non-thermal processing.

Keywords: Milk processing; Natural anti-microbial mechanism; Thermal and non thermal processing