From Cow to Cup: The Food Safety Journey of Your Glass of Milk

Whether you’re pouring it over cereal, stirring it into coffee, or enjoying a slice of California cheese, the journey your milk and dairy food took was carefully monitored from the farm all the way to your table.

For CDFA’s Milk and Dairy Food Safety Branch (MDFS), that journey is a primary focus. Our mission to protect California consumers starts by ensuring milk and dairy products are safe, wholesome, and accurately labeled.

To do this, the MDFS team stays busy across the entire state, conducting food safety inspections at every critical step in the supply chain.

Step 1: On the Farm

Safety begins exactly where the milk does: on the dairy farm. Inspecting the dairy and the milk produced there helps ensure a safe and high-quality finished product. Annually, MDFS conducts over 1,200 food safety inspections on dairy farms, and collects and tests approximately 4,400 farm samples across California, to help ensure health, safety, and quality standards are maintained at the point of origin.

Step 2: Safety on the Road

Once milk leaves the farm, it must remain protected during transit. We don’t just inspect those vehicles; we evaluate the procedures and protocols used when transporting milk to ensure no contamination occurs.

Annually, our team performs more than 1,400 bulk milk tanker truck inspections to verify transportation equipment meets California sanitary standards. We also conduct more than 950 drive evaluations each year to confirm the professionals moving our milk are maintaining a clean, safe, and secure supply chain.

Step 3: At the Processing Plants

The processing plant is where more heavy lifting happens. Everything from milk receiving to final packaging must be inspected and checked for compliance. Safe finished products are our top priority.

Annually, MDFS carries out more than 5,000 food safety inspections at processing facilities throughout California, including more than 2,100 separate checks on pasteurizer equipment to ensure this critical safety step is working properly. Finally, we collect and test over 12,000 samples of milk and milk products each year to help ensure the dairy foods arriving in your fridge are safe and wholesome.

Step 4: On the Label

Correct labeling of dairy products on store shelves is another important part of food safety, and accurate information is vital to consumer protection and nutrition. We work hard to help California’s dairy industry offer its high-quality products to the state, across the nation, and around the world. Throughout the year the MDFS team will review more than 1,400 labels to ensure that the information provided to the consumer is accurate, truthful, and not misleading.

A Commitment to Quality

CDFA’s Milk and Dairy Food Safety Branch continues to work quietly and tirelessly behind the scenes to help ensure the milk and dairy foods you enjoy stay safe. From the milk collected on the farm to the labels you read in the grocery aisle, CDFA is proud to have a key role in providing California dairy you can trust to be safe and delicious.

Note: CDFA’s Milk and Dairy Food Safety Branch is part of the Animal Health and Food Safety Services Division.