Assignment 1 – Food quality and traceability in the dairy production chain

This assignment deals with linking food attributes to food quality, and how traceability can
help retrieve products from the market if their quality is insufficient. Below, the dairy produc-
tion chain will be described in general. Subsequently the assignment itself will be discussed.

1. The dairy production chain

Figure 1.1 gives an overview of part of the dairy production chain. It shows the chain for
cheese, fresh dairy products, and ingredients. Those are the three main product categories
produced by the dairy industry.

Suppliers: Farm: Non-milk Packaging

ingredients materials
E.g. cow feed & Milking &
veterinary medicine Milk storage

Distribution: Milk, other ingredients, packaging

Cheese factory Fresh dairy factory

(see figure 2) (see figure 3)

Whey processing Warehouse: Distribution & Cream processing

Distributor
ripening
INGREDIENTS BUTTER &
Retailer
INGREDIENTS
Distribution &
Distributor
Consumer

Retailer

FRESH DAIRY
PRODUCTS
Consumer

CHEESE

Figure 1: The dairy production chain

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1.2 Product 2: Consumption milk

Figure 2 contains a flow-chart for the fresh consumption milk production process.

Raw milk
~4% fat

Filtering

Centrifuge
60°C

Cream
40% fat
Skim milk

Cream Homogenize
12% fat 10 MPa

Standardized
milk

Pasteurize
20 s 75°C
cool to 4°C

Packaging

Storage
(dark, 4°C)

Figure 2: Processing scheme of fresh milk

Fresh (pasteurized) milk

The production of fresh pasteurized milk combines the unit operations of clarification, sepa-
ration, pasteurization, and homogenization, see figure 2. The process is simple.
Pasteurization of milk has the following objectives:
 Killing the pathogenic micro-organisms that might be present in the raw milk
 Reduction of the number of bacteria that cause spoilage at refrigeration temperature
so that the packed product can be stored for a week or longer when kept refrigerated.
 Keeping flavour, nutritive value, and other properties as close as possible to fresh
raw milk. The more intense the heat treatment, the more the flavour of the milk will
differ from that of raw milk.
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With reference to the shelf life and safety of pasteurized milk, most countries have legal re-
quirements for the maximum number of micro-organisms (colony count), and coliforms, and
for the absence of the enzyme alkaline phosphatase. This enzyme is a marker for insufficient
heating, showing that pathogens (if present) may have survived.
To meet these legal requirements, the original milk should not contain too many heat-
resistant bacteria, the pasteurization step should be adequate, and contamination of pas-
teurized milk with micro-organisms should be minimized.
The shelf life of fresh milk is limited. The growth of Bacillus cereus spores, which survive the
pasteurization step, is often the limiting factor in the shelf life. Reduction of those spores by
bactofugation will lengthen the shelf life.
A cream layer is undesirable, especially when non-transparent packaging material is used. It
is prevented by homogenization, which implies that the pasteurizing intensity should be
adapted to avoid lipolysis by (natural) milk lipase.

Sterilized milk
Sterilized milk has a similar production process to pasteurised milk. In addition to the pro-
cessing steps as shown in figure 2, the milk receives an additional heating step after pas-
teurization. This sterilisation step aims at killing all micro-organisms present, including bacte-
rial spores, so that the packed product can be stored for a long period at ambient tempera-
ture, without spoilage by micro-organisms. Various time/temperature combinations can be
used. It is also important that the package used is also sterile and that cross-contamination
during filling is prevented (aseptic packaging).
Besides survival of heat-resistant bacteria (or their spores) which may lead to spoilage, also
bacterial enzymes may pose problems during storage. Some heat-labile bacteria (e.g. Pseu-
domonas), which is readily killed during heating, can form enzymes which cannot be fully
denatured during sterilisation. It is thus important that the raw milk contains as little as possi-
ble of these bacteria, to prevent the bacteria from forming these enzymes.

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1.2 Product 2: cheese

Figure 3 contains a flow-chart for the Gouda cheese production process.

Thermalize Unripened
Milk
15 s 65°C cheese

Storage Coat with

4°C latex

Standardize
Cream Drying
e.g. 3.5% fat

Pasteurize Brining
15 s 72°C 5 days

Sludge Bactofuge Demolding

UHT Resting
Mixing
treatment 1 hour

Starter
0.7% Pressing
Setting 0.1-0.3 bar
25 min 31°C 80 min
CaCl2
0.006%
Cutting Filling of
20 min molds
Rennet
0.022%

Draining Whey Buffer tank

45% 35-33.5°C
Hot water
25%

Scalding Stirring
Draining
NaNO3 35°C 20 min
0.0025%

Figure 3: Processing scheme of cheese production

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Description of the processing steps for the Gouda cheese production process:

Treatment of cheese milk

If the milk is to be kept cool for some time, cheese milk must first be thermalized, e.g., by
heating for 20 s at 65°C. This is aimed at preventing the formation of considerable amounts
of heat-resistant lipases and proteinases, and it may also reduce the count of some of the
detrimental bacteria.
The milk is then standardized and subjected to a pasteurization treatment sufficient to kill
pathogenic and harmful organisms. A too intense pasteurization causes part of the serum
proteins to become insoluble, which decreases quality of the end product.
Often, bactofugation is applied to reduce the number of spores of Clostridium tyrobutyricum;
these spores can cause quality defects during ripening.

Ingredients
The following ingredients are added to the cheese milk.
 Starter; a selected culture of lactic acid bacteria which are important for acidification
and flavour formation.
 Calcium chloride to improve curd formation: this will standardize the processing time
 Nitrate: to suppress growth of Clostridium tyrobutyricum spores

Milk coagulation and fermentation

The basis of Gouda cheese production is the addition of rennet (containing the enzyme
chymosin) to coagulate the casein proteins. This coagulation of casein causes them to ag-
gregate and form a network which traps water and fat. This network is called the curd.
The coagulation process is combined with the fermentation of lactose by lactic acid bacteria,
which lowers the pH. After inoculation with the starter culture, the milk is held for 25 min. at
31°C to ensure the bacteria are active, growing, and have developed acidity. The resulting
pH of the cheese affects such parameters as consistency and ripening (flavour develop-
ment) of the cheese.

Curd treatment
After the gel has reached the desired firmness, it is carefully cut into small pieces with knife
blades or wires. The curd pieces immediately begin to shrink and expel a greenish liquid
called whey. When the curd has reached the desired moisture content and acidity, it is sepa-
rated from the whey. The curd is then shaped into the desired shape with a certain firmness;
this also includes pressing of the curd. The curd is then salted by placing it in brine (a very
concentrated salt solution).

Ripening
After brining, the cheese is dried and coated with a plastic which contains a chemical to pre-
vent mould growth. The cheese is ripened for a specific time at a specific temperature and
humidity until the desired characteristic flavour, body and texture profile is achieved. During
ripening, degradation of lactose, proteins and fat are carried out by ripening agents (e.g. en-
zymes originating from the starter bacteria and rennet).
Thus, the microbial and biochemical composition of the curd, as well as temperature and
moisture affect the final product. This final stage varies from weeks to years according to the
cheese variety.

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2. Quality requirements for dairy products
Defects in the quality of dairy product can be of different origin. Milk and dairy products are
not systems in equilibrium: their quality is dynamic. Changes start even while the milk is still
in the udder (e.g. due to growth of bacteria). Furthermore, several changes can occur due to
the milking, the subsequent lowering of the temperature, and during the storage of milk. Fi-
nally, the processing has a major impact on the quality of the final product. However, if the
quality of the incoming raw materials (mainly milk) is low, the quality of the final dairy product
will also be compromised. The major quality risks for dairy products are discussed below.

Microbial safety and stability

During milking, cooling, and storage, milk will always be contaminated with certain microor-
ganisms like Pseudomonas. As milk is generally an excellent growth medium for microor-
ganisms, microbial spoilage is the main cause for quality defect in dairy products. A distinc-
tion can be made between pathogenic bacteria (safety) and spoilage bacteria (stability).

Safety
Pathogenic bacteria usually occur at low concentrations and don’t grow very well in cooled
products. All pathogens which can grow in milk are killed upon pasteurisation, so presence
of pathogens is of minor concern when dairy products are correctly pasteurized. Presence of
the enzyme alkaline phosphatase is used as marker that heating was sufficient to kill all
pathogens which may grow in milk.

The frequency of milk-borne diseases nowadays is very low and is almost exclusively asso-
ciated with the consumption of raw milk and milk products made from raw milk. The most
important pathogens found in raw milk nowadays are shown in table 1 The ability of the or-
ganism to grow at refrigeration temperature and to survive pasteurization is also tabulated.

Table 1 Growth and pasteurization resistance of pathogens in milk

Organism Growth <6°C Survives pasteurization
Staphylococcus aureus No No
Campylobacter jejuni No No
Clostridium spp No Yes (spores)
Salmonella spp No No
Escherichia coli ? No
Yersinia enterocolitica Yes No
Bacillus cereus Yes Yes (spores)
Listeria monocytogenes Yes No
Mycobacterium tuberculosis No No

Stability
Spoilage bacteria are usually not posing a danger to the health of the consumer, but they
can cause quality defects of dairy products. The best-known effect of spoilage bacteria is the
production of lactic acid from lactose, causing off-flavours and a decrease in pH. But also the
growth of spore formers is of importance: B. cereus can cause spoilage of pasteurized milk,
(main shelf life limitation of fresh pasteurized milk) and C. tyrobutyricum can cause spoilage
of cheese during ripening. Both these spore-forming bacteria can enter the milk if hygienic
conditions on the farm are not optimal. Most heating processes applied in dairy processing
do not destroy all micro-organisms or all microbial enzymes, which are often very heat sta-
ble.

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Some of the spoilage bacteria will now be discussed:
 Lactic acid bacteria: These bacteria rapidly grow in uncooled milk (temperature >
20°C) forming lactate out of lactose. Thus milk mostly turns sour if kept uncooled.
Most lactic acid bacteria do not survive low pasteurization (15 sec at 72°C).
 Psychrotrophs: Psychrotrophs widely occur and mainly consist of Pseudomonas. The
raw milk is cooled after milking. As a result, conditions favour the survival and subse-
quent growth of microorganisms adapted to a low temperature, like psychrotrophs.
Most psychrotrophs produce heat resistant proteases and lipases, causing bitter and
rancid off-flavors. The bacteria themselves do not survive heating, but the enzymes
produced are highly resistant to heat.
 Spores of bacteria: The genera Bacillus (aerobic or facultative anaerobic) and Clos-
tridium (strictly anaerobic) can form spores. The vegetative cells of spore-forming
bacteria are not heat-resistant but the spores can survive fairly intense heat treat-
ment.
o Bacillus cereus is of great significance because of the ability of some subspe-
cies to grow under refrigeration conditions. These spores may germinate after
heat treatment and spoil pasteurized milk by causing sweet curdling: the for-
mation of cheese-like lumps due to an enzyme formed by B. cereus. B. cere-
us mainly originates from soil, dust, dung, and cattle feed. B. cereus is often
the limiting factor in storage stability of pasteurized milk. The exact storage
temperature of milk is important when B. cereus is present: at 10°C it grows
much quicker than at 4-7°C.
o Clostridium tyrobutyricum can grow in cheese and ferment lactic acid; these
are also called butyric acid bacteria. The pH of the cheese is increased by the
fermentation of lactic acid. The main breakdown products are butyric acid,
CO2, and H2. This butyric acid fermentation leads to texture and flavour de-
fects. In serious cases, cracks or large spherical holes are formed in the
cheese, as well as very bad off-flavours. The butyric acid blowing manifests
itself after several weeks, or even months. Contamination of the milk takes
place via cow’s manure. Large numbers of C. tyrobutyricum occur in silage of
inferior quality. The spores will pass unaffected through the alimentary tracts
of cows consuming the silage, leaving in manure.
 Coliforms: They include Escherichia coli but several other genera and species are in-
volved. Coliforms grow rapidly in milk, especially above 20°C, and hydrolyze proteins
and lactose, as a result of which gas is formed and the flavor of the milk becomes
“unclean". Low pasteurization kills the Coliforms. This has led to their use as indica-
tor organisms: if Coliforms are absent, the product has been heated sufficiently and
has most likely not been re-contaminated.

Chemical safety and stability

Chemical safety mainly deals with the presence of chemical contaminants in milk or dairy
products. Chemical stability deals with numerous chemical reaction that may occur in milk, of
which oxidation is the most important one.

Chemical safety
Chemical residues may enter the product in two different ways: through the cow or through
contamination. When cows consume fat-soluble chemicals (e.g. PCBs, dioxins), they can be
transferred to the milk. On the other hand, chemicals used for cleaning can also contaminate
the milk or dairy product. This can occur on the farm (mainly chloroform) or in the factory
(chemicals used to clean and disinfect the equipment).

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The permissible limits of residues and contaminants are laid down in Maximum Residue Lim-
its (MRL’s). MRL’s are not set for every substance; no thresholds are set for substances that
are considered to be too dangerous for human health to consume in even minute quantities.
Below, some routes of entry of residues and contaminants into milk are highlighted. All
routes should be known to identify appropriate remedial measures as early as possible in the
food chain. This approach is in agreement with HACCP, which identifies critical control
points as early as possible.

Veterinary medicine
Udder infection (mastitis) is the most common disease of dairy cows. Residues of veterinary
drugs can enter the milk after treatment of mastitis with antibiotics that are introduced into
the udder. Antibiotics in milk may slow down or inhibit the growth of lactic acid bacteria used
in the manufacture of fermented products (especially yoghurt starter bacteria). Antimicrobial
residues in milk are important because of their possible impact on the emergence of antimi-
crobial resistance and for possible occurrence of allergic symptoms.

Feed
Extraneous components may enter milk via the cow, generally through the feed. Today, feed
is no longer a product from the local market but from an international market, so the compo-
nents introduced via the feed can come from all over the world. Generally, the cow acts as a
filter for extraneous substances but the effectiveness of the filtration differs greatly with the
type of component. Sometimes, substances are partly broken down first.

Below, two important groups of contaminants are discussed:

 PCBs and dioxins: PCBs and dioxins are two groups of chemical contaminants that
have made their way to the food chain. PCBs were once produced intentionally be-
cause of their flame-retarding properties. Dioxins on the other hand have never been
produced intentionally, but are formed during burning processes. The problem with
both PCBs and dioxins is that their presence in the environment is ubiquitous and
both groups of compounds degrade very slowly. For keeping low levels of PCBs and
dioxins in milk, one should be aware of accidents leading to emissions of these com-
pounds and subsequently to contamination of feed.
 Mycotoxins: Mycotoxins are formed by moulds. Mycotoxins are found abundantly, but
only aflatoxins are of health concern. Aflatoxins are produced pre- and post-harvest
under warm and humid conditions. Aflatoxins can therefore be found in agricultural
products from tropical and subtropical regions. The most effective way of controlling
aflatoxin in milk is to reduce contamination with aflatoxin of feed for dairy cattle.

Cleaning and disinfectants agents

To clean the milking equipment, the milk storage tank, the milk truck, as well as the milk pro-
cessing equipment, cleaning and disinfection agents are used. If cleaning and disinfection is
not done properly, or the rinsing afterwards is done insufficiently, these agents may enter the
milk. These agents may cause off-flavors, decreased activity of starters (reduced quality of
fermented products), and may be harmful for health.
Having correct cleaning protocols and following them correctly is the main way to prevent the
presence of cleaning and disinfection agents in milk.

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Chemical stability
The main cause of dynamic chemical deterioration is oxidation (of both fat and protein).

Fat oxidation
The oxidation of fat gives milk a metallic flavour, whilst it gives butter an oily, tallowy taste.
The presence of iron and copper salts catalyse the start of autoxidation and the development
of metallic flavour. Autoxidation is also caused by the presence of dissolved oxygen and ex-
posure to light, especially direct sunlight or light from fluorescent tubes.
Control of exposure to both the atmosphere and light are very important as the synergistic
effects of oxygen and UV light cause oxidative degradation of lipids producing off-flavours
known as rancidity.

Light-induced oxidation
Often confused with fat oxidation is the effect of (sun)light. Sunlight-induced defects are
caused by UV-rays from sunlight or flourescent lighting catalysing oxidation in unprotected
milk. Photo-oxidation activates riboflavin which is responsible for catalysing the conversion
of methionine to methanal. It is, therefore, a protein reaction rather than a lipid reaction.
However, the end product flavour notes are similar to fat oxidation.
The best way to prevent light-induced oxidation is to prevent of the entry of light: that is way
cartons are the main packaging material for dairy products

Enzymatic stability
Milk contains many indigenous enzymes that can cause quality defects in dairy products.
Examples are proteases, which cause proteolysis; and lipases, which cause hydrolysis of
fat. Hydrolysed fat has a rancid taste and smell.

Raw milk - Lipolytic activity

Raw milk contains an enzyme known as lipase, which can hydrolyze triglycerides, splitting
off fatty acids. These free fatty acids, especially the short chain fatty acids, are responsible
for a rancid flavor.
In raw milk, the membrane around the fat globules protects the fat from lipase activity. High
storage temperatures of raw milk stimulate lipolysis, but the responsible lipase enzyme can-
not act unless the fat globule membrane has been damaged. In normal farming and dairying
routines, there are many opportunities for fat globules to be damaged, for example by pump-
ing, stirring, and splashing of the milk.
Pasteurization destroys (natural) lipase, so properly pasteurized milk will not go rancid. Pro-
cessing plant employees must be aware of conditions that may induce rancidity. For exam-
ple, homogenized milk must be pasteurized before, or immediately after homogenization
Homogenized products should not be mixed with raw products. Prolonged agitation of warm
raw milk or pumping it through starved pumps may induce rancidity.

Dairy products - Proteolytic activity

Milk always contains the enzyme plasmin. Plasmin can hydrolyze proteins to yield several
degradation products. In UHT milk products, its proteolytic action causes a bitter flavour and
eventually can solubilize the casein micelles; in some cases, gelation has been observed.
The reason why UHT milk is sensitive is because the enzyme is very heat-resistant; appro-
priate UHT treatment (e.g., 140°C for 15 sec) should thus be applied to prevent such prob-
lems. Proteolytic activity can also cause off-flavours in cheese, but this is difficult to prevent,
as milk for cheese production can’t be heated with too much intensity.

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Physical stability
Physical changes will occur through different mechanisms during storage of the milk. Air is
beaten in during milking and pumping and because of this, additional dissolution of oxygen
and nitrogen in milk occurs. Moreover, a new structural element is formed: air bubbles. By
contact with the air bubbles, fat globules may become damaged, i.e., lose part of their mem-
brane. Fat globules will cream, which is most rapid at low temperatures. The creaming when
cold is usually determined by the aggregation of the globules. The globules aggregate to
large flocks during the so-called cold agglutination, i.e., the adsorption of agglutinin onto milk
fat globules.

A different type of problem with the physical stability is related to the texture of cheese: the
relative amount of fat, protein and water are very important to reach the desired texture. This
can be changed through standardization of the fat content of the milk used for cheese pro-
duction as well as the extent to which whey is removed.
During ripening, additional problem with the texture can arise: if the acidity of the curd is too
high, the protein network may become firmer leading to a hard/dry cheese texture. On the
other hand, if proteolysis (breakdown of protein) occurs to a larger extent that normal, it may
break down the protein network and lead to an unpleasantly soft cheese.

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 Assignment 1 – quality & traceability in the dairy chain
Deliverables:
• Make a report with your answers to the three questions of Assignment 1.
• Upload the report through Feedbackfruits (link on Brightspace) before Wednesday
23.00hrs.
• On Thursday, you will individually have to give feedback to the report of one of the
other groups (automatically assigned by Feedbackfruits), deadline is before the ple-
nary feedback session on Friday.
• On Friday, plenary feedback will be given.

The front page of the report should state the assignment number, the group number,
and the names of all participants of the group. If one of the group members did not con-
tribute to the report, you should leave his/her name from the report, and notify Kasper Het-
tinga (kasper.hettinga@wur.nl) immediately. All reports are graded separately. The average
of the 4 marks for the reports will count for 20% on the total mark for the course. If no report
is handed in, the assignment will be graded with a 0.

The report should be uploaded as PDF file with the following naming rules:

GroupXX_Assignment1.pdf
 The word “Group” and the group number “XX” should be without any
space/hyphen/underscore or anything else in between
 If you group number is <10, use a trailing 0 (e.g. 09)
 Don’t use any spaces in the filename
 Use an underscore between group number and the word assignment (and not any-
where else)
 Failure to comply will cost you 5 (out 100) points in the scoring of the assignment

Question A

As a reminder, the relation between properties, attributes and quality is schematically shown
in figure 4.

Figure 4: relation between product/process properties, quality attributes and (perceived) food quality.

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For question A & B of this assignment, you have to assume that you are the quality manager
of a large dairy company. When problems are reported by staff, customers, or consumer, it
is your job to find the cause of the problem.
In question B, you will analyse a large number of problems to get an overview of possible
risk for certain products. However, it is also useful to look at specific problems that occurred
in your own factory to try and prevent these specific issues for future.

To accomplish this job, you usually perform the following steps:

 Define which quality attribute is causing the quality problem (safety, shelf life, flavour,
convenience, health)
 Which product or process properties may influence this quality attribute?
 If multiple properties are identified: what product or process property is the most likely
cause of the quality problem?
 At which point in the production chain did this problem occur?

Below, a problem you have to deal with is described. You have to report your findings to
your manager, by writing down your assessment of the problem according to the four steps
mentioned above.

Stinking & bulging cheeses

The cheeses produced in your factory are sent to commercial warehouses where the cheese
are stored for different periods of time (depending on the required ripening stage at sale).
However, the director of the warehouse calls you that they had a strange smell in the ware-
house, which he describes as “sweaty feet”. He also reports an apparent bulging of the sur-
face of the cheeses. You request him to send some of the cheeses back to you. When you
receive them, you decide to cut them to see the inside.

Below is a picture of the inside of the cheese:

At this point, you should report to your manager, in the before-mentioned way. This
should include an advice on how to prevent future occurrences.

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Question B

Your manager now asks you to make an overview of possible risks associated with the
products you are working with. To do this, you are asked to make an overview of all recalls
made for certain products. The aim is to find common problems/weak spots in the food
product chain of these products in general, instead of focusing only on problem that have
occurred in your own factory

To do this, you can go to the databases mentioned below:

https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/portal/

In these database, you can find recall information for products, by searching for product
name. In the table below you can find for the different groups, which product to study (fill the
name of the product in the “subject” field in the form on the website).
Group Product Group Product
1 Infant formula 22 Cheese
2 Cheese 23 Milk
3 Milk 24 Milk powder
4 Milk powder 25 Infant formula
5 Infant formula 26 Cheese
6 Cheese 27 Milk
7 Milk 28 Milk powder
8 Milk powder 29 Infant formula
9 Infant formula 30 Cheese
10 Cheese 31 Milk
11 Milk 32 Milk powder
12 Milk powder 33 Infant formula
13 Infant formula 34 Cheese
14 Cheese 35 Milk
15 Milk 36 Milk powder
16 Milk powder 37 Infant formula
17 Cheese 38 Cheese
18 Infant formula 39 Milk
19 Milk 40 Milk powder
20 Milk powder 41 Infant formula
21 Infant formula 42 Cheese

There is a big difference in the number of recalls for each product (category). You have to
make a decision how many recalls you will study. In the report, you have to write the mo-
tivation for this decision!

For all recalls, collect the following information:

1. Details of product that is recalled
2. Which quality attribute is causing the quality problem (safety, shelf life, flavour,
health)?
3. At which point in the production chain did this problem occur?

You have to decide for yourself the level of detail with which you are going to collect this da-
ta. In the report, you have to write the motivation for this decision!

Using this information, analyse the production chain. Focus on the weak spots in the chain,
by finding trends in type of quality defect and source of quality defect.

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To show the results in the report, you can for example make a table with type of quality de-
fects and frequency of occurrence. You can also draw the production chains to point out the
weak spots with regard to product quality.
Some additional remarks for the report:
 Be aware that sometimes multiple recalls are from one company, and have just
one underlying cause. Describe in your report how you dealt with this.
 Discuss in your report both the advantages and disadvantages of using a recall
database for finding weak spots in specific food production chain.

Question C
In question A & B of this assignment, you first analysed the quality problems related to a
number dairy products, and a case of stinking and bulging cheese in particular. The data you
collected was from a database showing recalls. If products are recalled, it is important to
know which items should be recalled, where they are, etc. For this it is essential to have a
good traceability system in the dairy supply chain.

Question C1

In the traceability lecture, you learned that two major reasons for having a large recall batch
size are mixing/blending and the rework of products. In question C1.1 you will compute the
recall batch size in case batches of milk, originating from different farmers, are mixed in an
intermediate storage tank in a cheese factory. In question C1.2 you will compute the recall
batch size in the case of rework in this cheese factory.

Consider for these questions the following problem setting: The manager of a cheese factory
is interested in the recall batch size of cheese distributed to supermarkets for which milk of
one farmer is used that contains an unacceptable high level of spores that cause the stinking
and bulging of cheese as analysed in question A2. Such spores are an indicator for general
hygiene on the farm. Farmers with a good hygiene level have on average 3 spores/L of milk.
Dirty farmers have on average 10,000 spores/L while it has been described in literature that
the maximum acceptable level is 10 spores/L of milk.

Milk is delivered to the cheese factory in milk trucks. 1 milk truck gets milk from 5 farmers
(5,000 liter per farm, 25,000 liter per truck). At the dairy plant, the truck is unloaded into milk
silos that can contain a maximum of 100,000 liter of milk (which is equivalent to 4 full milk
trucks). The conversion rate of milk to cheese in this factory is 10 liter of milk for 1 kg of
cheese.

C1.1 Mixing. In this question, we assume that the cheese factory pasteurizes the milk in
batches of 100,000 liter (i.e. one batch equals one silo). After pasteurization, the milk is tem-
porarily stored in an intermediate storage tank that can contain a maximum of 500,000 liter
of pasteurized milk. The milk is subsequently processed in batches of 50,000 liter according
to the processing scheme of Figure 3.

Suppose for this exercise that when the intermediate storage tank reaches a level of
200,000 liter of milk, three new batches of pasteurized milk (i.e., 300,000 liter) are added to
the tank. Hence, the tank never contains less than 200,000 liter of milk. Figure 5 shows the
amount of milk (in liters) in the intermediate storage tank as a function of time.

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 Figure 5: Amount of milk in the intermediate storage tank as a function of time.

What is the recall batch size in kg cheese in case 5,000 liter milk of a dirty farmer is used in
the production process? Note that a batch has to be recalled when the level of spores in the
milk used for this batch is greater than 10 spores/L. Please explain your computations care-
fully.

C1.2. Rework. In this question, consider the `Filling of molds' process in the cheese produc-
tion processing scheme (depicted in Figure 3). After the milk is drained, it enters the 35-
33.5°C buffer tank in batches of 100,000 liter (see Figure 6 below). From the buffer tank, the
milk is filled into molds in batches of 105,000. However, 5,000 liter (4.76% or 1/21 part) of
the drained milk reenters the buffer tank after the filling process. Because of the rework, the
size of the buffer tank and the batch size for filling the molds is 100,000 liter plus the 4,76%
rework, which equals a total of 105,000 liter. For this question, do not assume any mixing
takes places like in question C1.1.

Figure 6: Filling process with rework.

a. What is the recall batch size in kg cheese in case 5,000 liter milk of a dirty farmer is
used in the production process? Please explain your computations. (For simplicity
you may assume that the conversion rate of milk to cheese is still 10 liter of milk for 1
kg cheese, and that all milk in the production steps upstream to the draining was pro-
cessed and stored in batches of 100,000 liter)
b. Suppose the manager would like to reduce the recall batch size by reducing the per-
centage of reworked milk. What is the maximum percentage of rework that guaran-
tees that only one batch (i.e. 100,000 liter milk or 10,000 kg cheese) is wasted due to
the milk of one dirty farmer? Please explain your computations.

Question C2

The problem of a large recall batch size (and hence of high recall costs) in Question B1 can
easily be reduced by processing milk to cheese in smaller batches. However, there is one
important operational reason to produce in large batches: capacity. It is often more efficient
to process a batch of (food) products than to process them one at a time. There are two
basic reasons why batching increases efficiency:

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  Setup avoidance. A setup or changeover is any operation that must be done at the
beginning of a batch (e.g., cleaning). The larger the batch size, the fewer setups re-
quired, and hence the less capacity lost to them.
 Simultaneous processing. Some operations are intrinsically batch in nature because
they can process a batch of product as quickly as they can process a single product.
For instance, baking bread in an oven may require the same amount of time regard-
less of whether the oven is loaded with 1 bread or 50 breads. Similarly, transporting
products between locations with a truck may require the same amount of time re-
gardless of whether the truck load is one product or a full container. Obviously, the
larger the batch size the greater the capacity of a simultaneous operation like this.

Hence, in determining what the best production batch size is for a given production process,
there is a clear trade-off between, on the one hand, recall cost and, on the other hand, the
operational cost related to capacity. In this question you will analyse this trade-off in the set-
ting of a cheese factory.

Suppose that milk in the cheese factory is processed in batches of a fixed size Q. This
means that after the milk arrives to the factory in milk trucks, it is unloaded into milk silos that
can contain exactly Q liter of milk. Subsequently, the milk is pasteurized and processed in
batches of Q liter. After processing a batch of milk of Q liter, some machines in the factory
have to be setup (cleaned) before a new batch can be processed. The setup costs per batch
in this factory is K = €1,000. The amount of milk produced in this cheese factory in one year
is D = 50,000,000 liter (or 5,000,000 kg cheese).

Similar to question B1, each farmer delivers milk to the factory in batches of 5,000 liter. For
each ‘farm batch’ of 5,000 liter delivered to the factory, there is a small probability p = 0.001
that the batch is contaminated (i.e. contains spores). When such a contaminated batch is
mixed with other milk, the whole production batch is contaminated and needs to be recalled.
For instance, if the factory processes milk in batches of Q = 10 * 5,000 = 50,000 liter, then if
one or more of the 10 farm batches in Q is contaminated, the whole 50,000 liter has to be
recalled. The cost of a recall batch is equal to the recall batch size times the cost price of
milk, which is c = €0.30 per liter. Hence, the cost of recalling a batch of 50,000 liter milk for
the factory is €15,000.

The manager of the factory wants to determine the best production batch size Q that mini-
mizes the sum of the yearly setup cost and yearly expected recall cost. In this question you
may assume that the batch size Q is a multiple n of the batch sizes delivered by the farmers,
i.e., Q = n * 5,000 liter. The question is now, which n minimizes the sum of the yearly setup
cost and yearly expected recall cost. To find the optimal Q, please provide an answer to the
following subquestions.

C2.1 How many setups does this factory have in one year when n = 5? What is the yearly
setup cost when n = 5?

C2.2 Make a plot of the yearly setup cost (on the y-axis) as a function of n (on the x-axis).
Take n = 1, 2, 3, ... , 50.

C2.3 Now we know how the yearly setup cost behaves as a function of the production batch
size Q = n * 5,000, we will focus next on the behaviour of the yearly expected recall costs.
Remember that the probability that a batch of a farmer is not contaminated is 1 - p = 0.999.
This means that if n = 1, the probability that a production batch Q is good is also 0.999.

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Suppose now that n = 2. Then the production batch consists of two batches each having a
probability of 0.999 of being not contaminated. The probability that the production batch Q is
correct is therefore 0.999 * 0.999 = 0.9992 = 0.998001.

Suppose that n = 26. What is the probability that the batch Q is not contaminated? What is
the probability that the batch is contaminated and has to be recalled?

C2.4 Make a plot of the probability that a batch has to be recalled (on the y-axis) as a func-
tion of n (on the x-axis). Take again n = 1, 2, 3, ... , 50.

C2.5 Observe that the yearly expected recall cost is equal to:

Use this formula to compute the yearly expected recall cost for n = 10.

C2.6 Include in the plot you made in Question C2.2 a plot of the yearly expected recall cost.
Include in the plot also a plot of the total yearly cost, i.e. the sum of the yearly setup cost and
yearly expected recall cost.

C2.7 What is the best production batch size for this factory?

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