Milk quality in Brazil: an overview of official analysis of sanitary monitoring

Resumo

The processed milk makes up an important part of the food consumed and marketed in the world; however, it is acknowledged as one of the most frequently susceptible food to fraud practices, in need of continuous monitoring of quality and safety. This study aimed to assess the quality of milk processed in Brazil, monitored by the Official Program of the Integrated Center for Food Quality Monitoring (CQUALI-Milk), as a subsidy for improvement and enhancement of this program, focusing corrective actions to improve products with attention on problematic regions. For this, we evaluated the results of official analysis, totalizing 1556 samples of milk from several commercial brands available in the Brazilian retail market. The results show that pasteurized milk was the category with the highest rate of irregularities and the milk powder the category exhibiting the best quality, despite the evidence of Bacillus cereus, which cannot be overlooked in the sanitary control. Milk processing chain in Brazil still needs improvement and a continuous quality monitoring, and to enhance the CQUALI-milk we shall infer that the targeting of corrective actions to improve products should be focused in the North and Northeast regions, especially regarding the pasteurized milks.