Spoiler Investigation - Contamination in UHT Milk

A dairy manufacturer producing UHT chocolate milk detected an increase in mesophilic bacteria during internal testing of its products, which led to quarantine.

Before contacting us, as mesophilic bacteria were involved, they decided to reprocess the batch, hoping that the high temperature of the UHT process would eliminate the bacteria. The problem persisted, resulting in the loss of two complete batches of UHT chocolate milk for the customer.

As the cause was still unclear, the customer contacted us for help. The contamination appeared sporadic rather than recurrent, and the initial corrective measures proved ineffective.

This case study explores how the customer leveraged the SMARTBIOME™ platform to help identify the root cause of their problem and implement targeted corrective and preventive measures.