Sunday, May 25, 2008

Milk tankers

Have you ever wondered how the milk stays cold in the "milk tankers" you see on the highway? What, you never thought about it!













There is no visible refrigeration on milk tanks.













You can clearly see "reefer" units on the trailer that we haul the finished milk products on.

The truth of the matter is, the milk tankers have no way of cooling the milk. Not to worry. The dairy farmer cools the milk after he milks the cows and it is cold when it is loaded into the tankers. The milk has to be a certain temperature before the tanker truck can accept it.







Then the tanker is really just a large "thermos bottle", keeping the milk cold until it reaches the dairy processing plant. When the tanker arrives, the temperature of the milk is checked and if it is cool enough to be accepted then milk samples are taken to our lab to be checked for bacteria and acidity. After all requirements are met, then it will be unloaded. The health department has strict guidelines that must be followed.

4 comments:

Tracy said...

Interesting stuff. I've seen those tankers going down the highway, and wondered how the keep the milk cool.

Unknown said...

I wondered about this while doing research on the history of baby bottles. It seems that the milk tanker trucks are made from stainless steel as are the plant processing equipment. This is very interesting given that the baby bottles of 'yesterday' have gone to an unhealthy plastic. I'm pleased to announce the first stainless steel baby bottle made completely with stainless steel and 100% plastic free. Sort of getting back to basics, like the stainless steel tankers. Check it out: http://www.trekkerbaba.com/

Anonymous said...

thanks for sharing information.

Michael McClure said...

United Dairy! :D I admire that company,my mom and dad work for it

 

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