Portable Milk Purification System

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective of this project is to determine whether UV sterilization can pasteurize milk. Methods/Materials To test my hypothesis I used 8 different UV exposure durations: 16 seconds, 32 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 16 seconds, 2 minutes, 4 minutes, 8 minutes and 25 minutes. In each test 500 ml of milk was exposed to UV light. Then, using an aseptic procedure, I took 100 microliters of milk from each test run and placed each sample onto separate Agar Plates. The Agar Plates were then placed in the incubator for 24 hours. The materials used included. UV LAMP (11w 254 nm), UV light Shield, Receptacle, Ballast, Raw Goat Milk - 3 quarts, Raw Cow Milk - 4 quarts, Incubator, Magnetic Spinner, 2 Beakers - 500ml and Agar Plates. Results Overall, increased exposure to UV light led to a decrease in new bacteria growth. Results for the Goat Milk plates were negative because almost all of them had fields growing. However in the case of Cow Milk no colonies were observed with 25 minutes exposure. Conclusions/Discussion My results showed me that 25 minutes of exposure to UV light could pasteurize Cow milk. Goat milk did not get pasteurized probably due to the fact that it is more opaque than Cow milk, and UV light has a hard time penetrating it. The economics of UV pasteurization vs. heat pasteurization needs to be studied. Additionally, research should be done it see if UV pasteurized milk has more nutrients than heat pasteurized milk.

Awards (1)

• Fourth Place

Competition history

• CSEF 2012 Microbiology (General) · Entry J1512

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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