By Shawn Cabak,
The Canada and Manitoba governments will invest $1.2 million in 275 on-farm food safety and animal welfare projects. Manitoba farmers continue to be innovators and leaders when it comes to bio-security, assurance systems, animal care and food safety.
In total, 255 livestock producers and 20 crop producers were approved for funding under Growing Forward 2’s Growing Assurance – Food Safety On-Farm program. To be eligible, producers must have implemented a national on-farm food safety program for their commodity where one exists.
More than half of the approved projects focus on animal welfare and will help Manitoba farmers implement new requirements under national codes of practice for caring of livestock. Some of these projects, valued at more than $610,000, include:
- Purchasing and installing low-stress handling equipment for cows and sheep
- Adding non-slip flooring and stall enhancements for dairy cows
- Improving environmental monitoring inside poultry barns
Manitoba leafcutter and honeybee producers received more than $83,000 for 50 projects including:
participation in a honeycomb exchange program
new microscopes to identify diseases on-farm
bee cell sampling, separating or sorting equipment
queen honeybee rearing equipment and training
Grain farmers were able to apply for funding to support a number of projects that would improve bio-security, including in-field pest monitoring, seed testing for pathogens, grain sample storage and managing access to equipment and fields.
The federal and provincial governments are investing $176 million in Manitoba under Growing Forward 2, helping producers and processors become more innovative and competitive in world markets. For more information, go to www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/growing-forward-2 under Strategic Initiatives.
Rapid, low-temperature process adds weeks to milk’s shelf life
Have you ever taken a large swig of milk only to find out it was past its shelf life? Yuck! Now would you dare to drink milk that was 63 days old?
A study conducted by the Purdue University’s Department of Food Science developed a process that extends the shelf life of milk. A rapid heating and cooling of milk significantly reduces the amount of harmful bacteria present, extending by several weeks the shelf life of the most common refrigerator staple.
Collaborators from Purdue and the University of Tennessee published their findings where they showed that increasing the temperature of milk by 10 degrees for less than a second eliminates more than 99 per cent of the bacteria left behind after pasteurization. The treatment lowered bacteria levels below detection limits.
The add-on to pasteurization can add shelf life of up to five, six or seven weeks for cold milk, giving it a shelf life of up to 63 days.
Pasteurization, which removes significant amounts of harmful pathogens that can cause illness and eventually spoil dairy products, is considered a high-temperature, short-time method. Developed by Louis Pasteur in the 19th century, the treatment gives milk a shelf life of about two to three weeks.
Sensory tests compared pasteurized milk with milk that had been pasteurized and run through the new process. Panelists did not detect differences in color, aroma, taste or aftertaste between the products.
The promise of the technology is that it could reduce waste and allow milk to reach distant locations where transport times using only pasteurization would mean that milk would have a short shelf life upon arrival.
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