Thursday, March 22, 2007

PI Count

We have been running some very, no, extremely high PI counts. (Unfortunately I cannot remember what PI stands for but it has to do with bacteria in the milk.) About a month ago I was informed we had a count of over a million. This caused me some consternation and I checked the inside of the tank. Their was a very nice build up of milk stone on the agitator paddles. So I had to squeeze my over sized body down into the tank. I was armed with a brush and a bucket of pipeline cleaner. Their is only one way to enter or leave the tank and that is through a hole in the top. This hole is circle about the size of a manhole. The problem is the ceiling is only two feet from the top of the tank and it is hard to bend my body the way it needs to bend to get through the hole. I always get nervous when duty calls me to enter this claustrophobic space. I am worried the lid will fall shut while I am in their and somehow I will be unable to get it open and then I would be stuck in their for hours and I would suffocate and die. So far that hasn't happened...
I was pretty sure cleaning the paddles would fix our count problem but it hasn't. It has been lower but it is still not low enough. I think we discovered another problem this morning in the vacuum line so I will try to clean it now. I believe the PI count affects the shelf life of the product. Souring milk would make all the customers grumble I am sure...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh dear, do mil and I think the same or what...for sure tell Rachel BEFORE You go in there and I am wondering what the fumes from the cleaner do to you way down in there too!!?? Oh dear....I just laughed though trying to picture you getting down through that hole that is two feet from the ceiling!! OH what a picture. For sure tell Rachel next time so she can post it. And I hope you get the bacteria count down....will it hurt your milk price? OUCH