Relação entre os indicadores de qualidade e volume do leite recebido em um laticínio para elaboração de programa de pagamento por qualidade

Abstract

For a dairy to remain competitive it is necessary to improve quality management, both during the production of raw materials on the farm and in the industry. With this objective in mind, a greater commitment from the entire chain is essential, since the great limiting factor is precisely the quality of the milk. One of the tools used by the dairy industry is the Payment for Quality Program (PPQ) for milk, since paying the producer for a better quality raw material is an advantageous strategy for the dairy, due to greater efficiency and yield resulting production of this product. The objective of this work was to carry out a case study of a dairy located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, evaluating real data on the quality of the milk collected. For quality control, in addition to the mandatory daily analyses, milk samples were sent monthly to the laboratory of the Brazilian Milk Quality Network (RBQL), for evaluation of compositional and hygienic-sanitary quality indicators (Somatic Cell Count - CCS and Total Bacterial Count - CBT). The herd production data and these indicators were categorized, classifying the volume of milk received during the period from February 2019 to February 2021. Five simulations were performed in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (2016) of milk PPQs based on the reality of the quality and volume of milk supplied, demonstrating in each case the savings and investment values. For the first four simulations, the indicators for the 2019/2020 period were used, the fifth with those of the following year. The dairy in the present study initially used a PPQ similar to PPQ 1. There was a trend of improvement in CBT one year after the beginning of the implementation of PPQs, reducing from 58.54% to 35.88% the volume of milk with CBT above of 300,000 CFU/mL. CCS obtained a smoother improvement, reducing from 47.8% to 43.11% the volume above 500,000 cs/mL, the maximum value established by legislation. On the other hand, for the compositional indicators, fat and total solids, for example, there was an increase in the volume that does not meet the legislation, from 8.2% to 12.5% and from 5.7% to 8.5%, respectively. This fact may reflect the influence of external factors and investment in long-term improvements. It was concluded that, only with data from desired quality indicators and establishment of categories, it was already possible to draw a PPQ model according to the reality of the quality of milk supplied to the dairy with a simple tool, easy to use, even for small and medium dairy products, helping their managers in decision making.