Quality of Raw Goat Milk in Lower Southern Thailand
Abstract
This research aimed to evaluate the quality of raw goat milk such as milk composition (fat, protein, lactose, total solid, solid not fat, mineral, freezing point and specific gravity) and bacterial contamination (total plate count and coliform count) in three lower southern border provinces (Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala), Thailand. Data were randomly collected from 36 dairy goats within 8 local goat farms. The results showed that comparing the differences in milk composition in all three provinces, it was found that fat, total solid, freezing points and specific gravity were significant differences among treatments (P<0.05). Narathiwat province had the highest fat of 6.41±1.08% and total solid of 15.23±1.19%. Additionally, the number of total plate count of goat milk in Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala provinces were 3.59±0.14, 4.02±0.85 and 4.41±0.72 log10CFU/mL, respectively. Coliform count was not detected in goat milk samples from all provinces. However, all milk composition traits found that the most of farms passed the Thai Agricultural Commodity and Food standards (TACF) and bacterial contamination of goat milk was lower the legal standard of TACF. These findings suggested that a sustainable manner for dairy goat farmers in these areas still needed to support for improvements of daily goat production in Lower Southern Thailand.
