ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS TO HELP AVOID BACTERIOPHAGE OUTBREAKS

SOME ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS TO HELP AVOID BACTERIOPHAGE OUTBREAKS?

Here are some additional recommendations to help avoid phage outbreaks in your plant:
  1. Wash (chlorinated alkaline then acid) and sanitize cheese vats between every fill.
  2. Allow enough time to clean and sanitize equipment properly (plants don’t want to take time to clean).
  3. Don’t run long days (18 hours at the maximum).
  4. Don’t run seven days per week.
  5. Use effective sanitizers (talk to your chemical representative).
  6. Use peracetic acid or 200ppm sodium hypochlorite to rinse off clean equipment (do not use quat sanitizers).
  7. Keep floors dry. There is a correlation between phage and wet floors. Bacteria can’t multiply without water. This is also good for listeria.
  8. control.
Lastly, it is important that plants maintain a sound phage monitoring program. Whether it is done in house or by sending whey samples to your culture supplier, it is imperative to know the phage levels in the plant for each strain to catch problems before they result in the
production of poor quality cheese.

Phage are always a threat, so constant vigilance is required to prevent phage related cheese quality issues.

For any technical assistance please contact magriet@dynamiko.co.za or cherry@dynamiko.co.za
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