This is the second post of a three part series on my Pure Michigan Michigan Ag Council Blogger tour:
Pure Michigan – Dairy Farm Tour Pure Michigan – Milk Processing Plant Pure Michigan – Kroger Store Tour
After leaving the Horning’s Dairy Farm, we moved to the Dairy Processing Plant for Kroger in Livonia, Michigan.
We had to put on our hair nets, hard hats, safety glasses, rubber shoe booties and a lab type jacket. We had to wash our hands also. Not bringing any foreign contamination into the the facility is a high priority. The facility smelled like milk with a hint of sanitizer, because it’s just that clean!
We were not allowed take photos, so you will have to just see the pictures of us outside the plant and all dolled up in our protective garb.
Once the milk leaves the farm, it is taken to a processing plant like the one in Livonia, Michigan (there is also one in Ovid, Michigan and BLANK through the country). The quality control team comes and takes a sample and tests the milk to ensure it meets quality standards. This process takes about 30 minutes.
Once accepted (it is extremely rare for milk to be turned away from all the testing done by the farms before it makes it to the plant), the tanker is approved to complete delivery.
A fact I found super interesting was the milk that comes on the truck in the morning, could be processed and sent out to the Kroger stores that same day, next day at the latest. Talk about Farm Fresh!
We got to sample fresh milk and cottage cheese from the plant (so delicious!).
Quality to the next level at the Processing Plant
The processing plants take pride in the quality of their products. The lab tests every batch that is processed, and continue to check the product for 18 days (what they feel is the average shelf life of their product). I have not heard of such thorough quality checking before, but I was very impressed and the employees in quality are very proud of the product that they produce.
After seeing all the testing and quality control that goes on with milk processed by Kroger, I am confident we are getting delicious, quality milk, while supporting our local farmers.
Interesting! I can’t say that I’ve been on a company tour.
It was very interesting Sabrina. There is a lot that is involved to make milk!
Another great post, girl! I loved the factory too. It made me feel much more confident in our dairy food system!
What a great idea! Its always good to know what you are putting in your body!
Yes it was very cool to see what they do and they are very eco friendly too. They have little material that is not recycled!
This sounds really cool. I love doing tours like this!
Thanks for sharing!
~Ola
I can say I’m confident in the milk I drink now that I know what they do to make it.
My uncle has a dairy farm and it is so interesting to see what happens when we buy our milk. Thanks for a very cool post!
I love going on tours like this as well. We have a few processing plants in the Denver Metro Area. My favorites are Hammond Candies and Patsy’s slat water taffy plants. There’s a Purina plant close by but I haven’t ventured there yet. Not sure I need to see how dog food is made however, Coors is a great tour and you get as much free beer as you like at the end of the tour!
Oh nice to know other companies do tours. I agree, I would not want to see the dog food tour either.
This sounds like such an interesting tour. I would love to go on one one day. For now. I’ll stick to reading stories from other people and watching How It’s Made. 🙂
Khloé Gadson
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That’s way cooler than the field trip I went on to a dairy farm. This was probably around 1978. I remember getting ice cream that I thought was straight from the cow.
Fun experience. Love the hair nets!!
This brings me back to childhood field trips, too! We don’t drink milk now, but I remember thinking it was really cool back then. I do like knowing how fresh the milk supply is!
I was amazed at how fresh the milk was too. Awesome!
I love going on tours like this! When I was a kid, we used to always go to the Colonial Bread factory in our time. Its one of those things from my childhood I miss! It was awesome going to that side of town since it ALWAYS smelled like fresh bread!
I think I am weird but I love going on tours in factories and stuff like that. Its nice to see how products are made