SDP Costs and feasibility March 2005

Abstract

Many farmers in Kenya dwell In areas with poor roads, lack electricity or where cooling is uneconomical. This occasions losses of milk through waste, spoilage inefficiency. Some milk market agents in such remote areas use harmful chemical agents in milk to preserve It. While cooling is still the preferred method of bulk raw milk preservation, an alternative method of preservation using the Lactoperoxidase system (LPS)1 has been developed for use by smallscale farmer groups in poor milk market access regions. The use of LPS has been approved by both the FAOIWHO Expert Committee on Food additives and the Codex Alimentarius Commission. This study sort to determine (i) the financial feasibility of use of LPS compared to milk cooling and lor no preservation at all. (ii) the potential for dairy farmers in the rural areas to increase their profitability by using LPS to preserve and sell their evening milk (iii) the institutional feasibility for use of the LPS technology in milk marketing in Kenya (iv) the potential for it to replace potentially harmful chemicals used to preserve raw milk by some marketing agents.