Food Safety

doi: 10.1111/j.1471-0307.2010.00620.x

REVIEW

Food safety management systems (FSMS) in the dairy
industry: A review
PHOTIS PAPADEMAS 1 * and THOMAS BINTSIS 2
1

Faculty of Geotechnical Sciences and Environmental Management, Department of Agricultural Sciences, Biotechnology and
Food Science, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus, and 2Department of International Trade,Technological
Educational Institute of Western Macedonia – Kastoria, Greece

Food safety management systems in the industry have been designed and established over the last four
decades with several revisions. The dairy industry soon realised the need for proactive procedures hence
implementing HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) for ensuring that safe dairy products would reachthe consumers. This article reviews the food safety management systems as well as
the relevant EC Regulations that are currently implemented by the dairy industry. The need for rigorous
controls in the dairy industry is also highlighted.
Keywords Dairy industry, Food safety, HACCP, ISO22000, Milk, Milk products.

INTRODUCTION

*Author for
correspondence. E-mail:
photis.papademas@cut.ac.cy
Ó 2010 Society of
Dairy Technology

Milk and milk products are indispensable components of the food supply chain as milk is an excellent source of nutrients for humans. Equally
important is the fact that dairy products are also
known as added-value products (e.g. lactose-free,
Calcium-enriched) while amongst functional foods;
dairy-based functional foods (e.g. with added probiotics,omega-3, phytosterols) account for 43% of
¨
a $16 billion market (Ozer and Kirmaci 2010).
The selection is large: liquid milk, concentrated
milk, fermented dairy products (e.g. cheese,
yoghurt), milk powder, butter, cream, ice cream,
dairy beverages, to name but a few. Dairy products
are consumed as is, as well as utilised in vast quantities by the food manufacturing industry (e.g. milkpowder).
The total annual worldwide milk production is
695 million tons which are translated to 117 billion
EU annual sales for the top 20 dairy companies.
Cow’s milk represents 84% of the total milk production (IDF 2009) which most of it will be sold
as a heat-treated product (e.g. pasteurised, highpasteurised or UHT) or converted to dairy products
(e.g. cheese, cultured milk, yoghurts, milkpowder)
(Arvanitoyiannis et al. 2009). Additionally milk
and milk products are readily consumed by virtually all population groups (e.g. infants, children,
teenagers, middle-aged and the elderly).
During 2009 and by February 2010, 58 notifications regarding milk and milk products have been
reported by the EU Rapid Alert System for Food
and Feed (EU, 2010). Most of the notifications
concerned thepresence of potentially pathogenic
micro-organisms in dairy products (e.g. Salmonella

spp., Staphylococcus spp., Listeria monocytogenes,
Escherichia coli O157:H7), spoilage micro-organisms (e.g. moulds) and hygiene indicator microorganisms (e.g. coliforms), while a recent notification regarded the presence of antibiotics in milk.
It is evident, from the aforementioned statistics
and factsthat milk and milk products are widely
available throughout the world and that possible
contamination by either a microbiological, chemical
or physical hazard would affect a large population.
DEVELOPMENT OF FOOD SAFETY
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Arvanitoyiannis et al. (2009) described the development of HACCP as the first food safety management system in the food industry. It was initiated in
the1960’s by the need to produce the first astronaut safe meals for the Mercury, Gemini and
Apollo space NASA flight programs. The project
was successfully competed by the Pillsbury Company (in collaboration with NASA).
In 1971, during the National Conference on
Food Protection the concepts for examining Critical
Control Points (CCP’s) and Good Manufacturing
Practices in producing safe foods were...