Audit of milk testing centres reports satisfactory results

ALL results were satisfactory at the three milk testing centres inspected to date by officials, as part of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food’s new regime of monitoring the testing of milk for payment purposes.

A full audit was carried out on three of the 23 testing centres coming within the ambit of the regime. All were found to be satisfactory. The remaining laboratories will be audited during the remainder of the milk year.

Nineteen checks were carried out at 13 test centres on calibration of the automated equipment used to test milk for butterfat, protein and lactose content, and for SCC levels. These were satisfactory. The butterfat content of 164 milk samples at 15 different testing centres was cross-checked by the Gerber method. All the results were satisfactory.