Dairy Food Processing

Making high quality, safe dairy foods involves many steps from farm to the finished product. Use Penn State’s resources on milk production at the farm, manufacturing different types of dairy foods, regulations, food safety and sanitation, and business and marketing to help make your dairy foods business successful.

The Dairy Food Processing Industry in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is one of the top states in the nation for milk production. The dairy industry supports 52,000 jobs and contributes $14.7 billion to the state's economy. Pennsylvania has over 300 dairy food processors that use milk from cows, goats, and sheep to produce fluid milk products, cheese, yogurt and other cultured dairy products, ice cream and frozen desserts, butter, and concentrated and dried dairy products.

Dairy food processors in Pennsylvania range in size from operations with less than 5 employees processing less than 2,000 pounds of milk per week to more than 150 employees processing more than 500,000 pounds of milk per week.

Processing dairy products in not difficult, but it is not necessarily straightforward, taking into account the many aspects of quality, safety, and understanding which regulations apply to all processors and which apply only to processors of a certain size or who are making a specific type of dairy product.

In this section of the Extension website, you will find resources to help you navigate the world of dairy foods processing starting with milk production on the farm to processing different products, and the regulations, sanitation and food safety practices needed to make safe, high quality dairy products. Information on business management and marketing is provided to help existing processors expand their business and to help farmers and entrepreneurs start a successful value-added dairy foods business.