Maintenance compounds used in dairy processing

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What are dairy maintenance compounds?

Detergents, sanitisers, and other compounds used to clean or maintain dairy processing facilities and equipment are known as "dairy maintenance compounds" or DMCs. There are different requirements for DMCs, depending on where they’re used.

Requirements for farm dairies

Products (chemicals) used in farm dairies to clean, sanitise, or maintain the milking plant (including the bulk milk tank) and other areas in the farm dairy must be "approved" DMCs. These have been approved by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) for use in farm dairies. DMCs also include compounds for water treatment and for pest control in and around the farm dairy.

The main point of using approved DMCs is to make sure cleaning and maintenance products are suitable and don't contaminate the raw milk, damage the equipment and rubberware.

Requirements for dairy manufacturers and dairy stores

Maintenance compounds used in dairy manufacturing premises and dairy stores don't have to be approved by MPI. However, you do need to make sure that the maintenance compounds you use are suitable, and you need to hold onto the information you used to confirm that each maintenance compound is suitable for the intended use.

You can choose to use MPI approved compounds, in which case you won’t need to do your own assessment. What each compound is intended to be used for and how it should be used will be clear from the container label or instructions provided along with the MPI register (see below).

Register of approved DMCs

MPI provides a register of all approved maintenance compounds, which we update regularly.

The register shows:

basic information about each product (supplier, name, type, and status)
any conditions that have been applied to a product to make sure it's used correctly.