Mr John Gethi, Brookside procurement director. photo | salaton njau
Brookside Dairy has asked farmers to meet milk quality standards
as it plans a nationwide training to help reduce contamination and
rejection by processors.
The firm’s director of
procurement, John Gethi, said the campaign aims at increasing deliveries
of clean raw milk at their Ruiru-based processing plant.
“We
are making substantial investments in clean milk production in
partnership with our farmers. All raw milk received at our cooling
stations must be delivered in food-grade containers after being
subjected to a number of quality conformity tests,” said Mr Gethi.
Handling
milk during milking, cleaning of cans as well as packaging for
transportation are some of the topics line up in this campaign.
Speaking when he addressed farmers at a demonstration farm in
Maragua, Mr Gethi said farmers must observe high hygiene standards.
“As
an ISO-certified processor, we will continue to reject any raw milk
that does not meet the set quality minimum on density, antibiotics
presence and microbial loads,” Mr Gethi said. Brookside Dairy, which
procures 1.5 million litres of raw milk from 160,000 contracted farmers
recently increased its producer prices by Sh11 to Sh37 for every litre.
According
to the Kenya Dairy Board (KDB), milk should be transported in aluminium
of stainless steel containers. Farmers must wash hands, milk
containers, and cow teats with clean water before milking and after.
Adding water to milk creates a fertile ground for bacteria, thereby endangering consumers, Mr Gethi said.
“We
are calling on our farmers to resist the temptation to add water onto
milk. Those who used antibiotics to treat their cows should also observe
the withdrawal periods given by drug manufacturers before supplying
such milk to us,” he said.
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