Self-control programs in quality management of milk cooling stations in the state of Goiás

Abstract

The cooling station is an intermediate establishment between rural properties and milk processing industries. To ensure competitiveness and meet consumer demands and legislation, producers and companies need to comply with the application and monitoring of procedures and programs for sanitary hygienic safety and improvement of the quality of milk and its derivatives. The objective of this study was to verify the level of compliance with self-control programs (SCP) in a milk refrigeration station and the follow-up of good production practices in the respective rural properties supplying milk. To verify the compliance of the SCP implemented in the company, a checklist was elaborated based on the current legislation, and the monitoring was followed through visual observation and interviews with employees. We also used SCC and TPC data from 4 producers who adopted good production practices in obtaining milk and from 4 producers who did not adopt good practices for comparison. The percentage of attendance of the self-control programs found was 72.33%, presenting nonconformities within some elements of inspection. The compliance with the legislation about to the values of SCC and TPC was higher for those producers who produced by Good Practices, the results showed that the refrigeration station does not meet in compliance with all the items of verification of the SCP. And that the adoption of good production practices could influence the values of SCC and TPC.