Quality control of raw milk in the smallholder collection and bulking enterprises in Nakuru and Nyandarua Counties, Kenya

Kenya has one of the largest dairy industries in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the milk marketed by small-scale farmers in Kenya has been reported to be of poor quality and does not meet national and international standards due to high bacterial load, high somatic cell count, adulteration and antibiotic residues. This study was designed to assess status of microbiological and physico-chemical quality of raw milk from two smallholder dairy farmer’ groups at four sampling levels. Three hundred and eight raw milk samples were collected and analyzed along the value chain. Microbiological analysis for total bacterial count and coliform count was carried out using 3MTM Petrifilms plates. The average total bacterial and coliform counts Log10 per ml at the processing factory was 8.462 and 6.770 for Ngorika and Olenguruone, respectively. The antibiotic residues especially β- lactam was prevalent with 44.5% of all the analyzed samples being positive.  Likewise, 60% of the samples had a range of 150,000 to 500,000 somatic cells/ml. Average water adulteration level for the two collecting and bulking enterprises was 30.3%. TVBC and CC should be used instead of resazurin while freezing point determination should be used for adulteration. Key words: Raw milk safety, Adulteration, Antibiotic residues Resazurin test.