Dairy engineering: A keystone to the dairy industry

Abstract

Dairy engineering, as the name suggests, is the application of engineering to milk and milk products. But the interesting part comes when different products are to be made from one base material and how the characteristics change. With millions of tons of milk being produced each day, it becomes necessary to process using proper engineering techniques and methods before sending it to the end user. Dairy engineering has played a key role in shaping the dairy industry. Right from the collection of raw milk to processing and packaging, dairy engineering has laid its foundation to make safe milk available for consumption. Along with milk, the process of making value-added milk products requires good technology and engineering processes behind it. Not only in product manufacturing but even in understanding the utility requirements and in ensuring minimum losses in effluent causing limited environmental impact, engineering plays a crucial part. While dealing with machinery in the plant, dairy engineering is useful to carry out preventive and breakdown maintenance to maintain and/or improve the efficiency of the machines. Engineering helps in new product development to know its properties and even to understand the product life cycle. Automation has played an important role in fine-tuning dairy engineering. Lastly, while dealing with milk and milk products, there is a wide range of temperature difference, ranging from minus degree to ambient temperature. In order to deal with this variance, we need to have a cold chain to retain the product properties and even shelf life.