How Milk is Made

Steen's Dairy moved to Guelph in August 2010 and proudly produces Organic Meadow milk in many different sizes.

Prior to moving to Guelph, Steen's operated in Erin, Ontario for 66 years.

After an early morning pick up at different farms the organic milk arrives at the dairy.

It is then pumped from the bulk tank in the truck to a stainless steel silo that will hold it at a temperature between 1-4C, until its ready to pasteurized and packaged.

This is the separator that takes the milk and separates it into different percentages of milk that you see at the grocery store.

Only stainless steel walls and pipes are used to ensure easy clean up and proper sanitation. This helps us provide you with high quality organic milk.

This is the homogenizer. The milk is passed through this machine which breaks up the fat molecules and verifies that they are all the same size. This prevents the fat from separating and floating to the top and ensures that the milk you are drinking is smooth and creamy. Homogenization is a standard procedure within the dairy industry.

Vitamins A and D are required, by law, to be added to the milk and this is done just before pasteurization.

This is the pasteurizer. The metal plates surround the stainless steel pipes where the milk is flowing. These plates are heated, which in turn heat the milk.

We minimally process our products to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency standards, which means that the milk is heated to 72C for 15-16 seconds. This helps us keep our high quality without compromising the favour and taste of our organic milk.

Once the milk is pasteurized it leaves the designated raw milk room and moves into another part of the dairy where it will be packaged.

These are the storage tanks for the left over cream. It will be packaged into half and half cream or whipping cream, or it could be sent to another dairy to be made into ice cream or butter.

The milk is ready for packaging. This is the 4L bag machine which is forming and filling the 1.33L bags.

The pouches will go onto a conveyer where they will be stamped with a production and date code and then placed into a larger 4L bag that you would buy at the grocery store.

The milk is then placed in cases where it is sent to either a refrigerated walk in cooler and held for pick up or sent directly to a refrigerated truck to go out for distribution and delivery to your local grocery store.