In emerging dairy chains, inconsistent product quality and safety are recurring issues. The need for improvement in hygiene and safety control practices to meet rapidly growing demands for dairy products quality and safety is imperative. However, existing assessment tools do not consider specific situations in emerging dairy chains, where practices are often performed below standard requirements, which presents an inaccurate picture when these tools would be used. This study presents the development of a customized tool to assess and differentiate levels of safety and hygiene control practices in emerging dairy chains. The tool consists of indicators to analyse control practices and four corresponding grids to assess and differentiate the levels of the safety and hygiene control practices at the farm, during transportation, milk collection, and at local retail points crucial for microbial and chemical (i.e. aflatoxin) safety. The customized tool was piloted in Tanzania to assess on-farm practices, as an example of an emerging dairy chain, using interviews, farm visits and audio-visual assisted observations. Thirty-eight small and three large-scale farmers were interviewed, and their control practices observed. The responses were scored based on the grids and the scores were used for data analysis to identify patterns among the farmers. Overall, the customized assessment tool was able to accurately differentiate safety and hygiene practices of the farmers into three distinct clusters. The majority of the small-scale dairy farmers were performing practices at poor to basic level with very few practices at an intermediate level. The large-scale farmers were operating mainly at intermediate to standard level but with basic level performance on milk safety monitoring method, udder and teat care, and personal hygiene practices. Overall, incremental changes are required for on-farm practices to adequately mitigate microbial and aflatoxin contamination of fresh milk. Furthermore, the obtained profiles on farmers safety and hygiene control practices provide input for the development of training programs tailored to the knowledge and skills needs of groups of farmers with similar performance levels. Further research is needed to provide insight into the relationship between the level of control practices and milk safety outcomes.

中文翻译：

---

一种定制的评估工具，用于区分新兴乳品连锁店的安全和卫生控制实践

在新兴的乳品连锁店中，不一致的产品质量和安全是反复出现的问题。必须改进卫生和安全控制实践，以满足对乳制品质量和安全快速增长的需求。然而，现有的评估工具没有考虑新兴乳品链中的具体情况，这些做法通常低于标准要求，这在使用这些工具时呈现出不准确的情况。本研究介绍了一种定制工具的开发，以评估和区分新兴乳品链中安全和卫生控制实践的水平。该工具包括用于分析控制实践的指标和四个相应的网格，用于评估和区分农场、运输、牛奶收集、以及对微生物和化学品（即黄曲霉毒素）安全至关重要的当地零售点。该定制工具在坦桑尼亚试用，以评估农场实践，作为新兴乳品链的一个例子，使用访谈、农场访问和视听辅助观察。采访了 38 名小农和 3 名大型农户，并观察了他们的控制做法。根据网格对回答进行评分，并将分数用于数据分析，以确定农民之间的模式。总体而言，定制的评估工具能够将农民的安全和卫生习惯准确区分为三个不同的集群。大多数小规模奶农的做法是从初级到初级水平，很少有中级水平的做法。规模化养殖户主要以中级到标准水平经营，但在牛奶安全监测方法、乳房和乳头护理以及个人卫生习惯方面具有基本水平。总体而言，农场实践需要逐步改变，以充分减轻鲜奶的微生物和黄曲霉毒素污染。此外，获得的关于农民安全和卫生控制实践的概况为制定针对具有相似绩效水平的农民群体的知识和技能需求量身定制的培训计划提供了投入。需要进一步研究以深入了解控制实践水平与牛奶安全结果之间的关系。需要逐步改变农场做法，以充分减轻鲜奶的微生物和黄曲霉毒素污染。此外，获得的关于农民安全和卫生控制实践的概况为制定针对具有相似绩效水平的农民群体的知识和技能需求量身定制的培训计划提供了投入。需要进一步研究以深入了解控制实践水平与牛奶安全结果之间的关系。需要逐步改变农场做法，以充分减轻鲜奶的微生物和黄曲霉毒素污染。此外，获得的关于农民安全和卫生控制实践的概况为制定针对具有相似绩效水平的农民群体的知识和技能需求量身定制的培训计划提供了投入。需要进一步研究以深入了解控制实践水平与牛奶安全结果之间的关系。获得的关于农民安全和卫生控制做法的概况为制定针对具有相似绩效水平的农民群体的知识和技能需求量身定制的培训计划提供了投入。需要进一步研究以深入了解控制实践水平与牛奶安全结果之间的关系。获得的关于农民安全和卫生控制做法的概况为制定针对具有相似绩效水平的农民群体的知识和技能需求量身定制的培训计划提供了投入。需要进一步研究以深入了解控制实践水平与牛奶安全结果之间的关系。