Guida's 18-Day Shelf-Life for Milk Results From Attention to Detail and Quality

Gallon Filler
The Guida's name is synonymous with quality. Consumers know that Guida's milk is the best milk available. They know it because of the inner foil seal. They know it because of the company's commitment to great tasting milk.

Most of all, they know because of Guida's 18-day freshness code, one of the longest in the industry.

"We have one of the longest shelf-life code in the industry, and that's because we do things a little bit better than our competitors," said Guida's Chairman of the Board, Bernie Guida.

Guida's Vice President Michael Guida added that while most competitors have a 12-day code and very recently a few went to 16 days, Guida's has maintained an 18-day code for the past 10 years.

"We actually have to hold our milk for 20 days at 45 degrees to get an 18-day code, which requires 98 percent compliance on that," Michael said. "We get that because of our attention to quality and detail. If you focus your processes primarily on generating as much milk as possible, you're going to lose some of your quality."

Achieving an 18-day code begins with the raw materials. Guida's buys only the highest quality milk it can purchase. If a tanker-load of raw milk comes in with a temperature above Guida's minimum standards, Guida's will reject the entire 6,000 gallons. Guida's also refuses to buy and store excess quantities of milk at its processing facility.

Hugh O'Hare, Guida's Product Quality Manager and Assistant Plant Manager, said that Guida's has an agreement with the cooperative that supplies its milk that allows the company to reject any raw product that does not meet its standards. Mr. O'Hare added that having the ability to reject inferior milk puts Guida's in a good position to make a better quality product. Guida's rejects any load of milk that does not meet the company's criteria for bacteria, microbial counts, odor and other relevant factors.

"We pay attention right from the beginning of the process, which is receiving," said Guida's Director of Plant Operations Wesley Sliwinski. "We only buy just-in-time inventory. You have to start with good product or the final product won't be the best. After that, it is proper handling and storage and temperature."

Mr. Sliwinski said that it is very important to put milk into the processes immediately to ensure the longest freshness date possible.

"We begin processing the milk on the same day we receive it to control the quality of the final product," Mr. Sliwinski said. "We have a state-of-the-art CIP system to control flow, temperature, conductivity, concentration of chemicals and cleaning. We also have temperature control probes at every stage of processing. If any of these parameters are not met, we will not finish the processing cycle. There are no shortcuts."

Mr. O'Hare said that the most important part of Guida's quality process is a function called post-pasteurization sanitation. "The quality of the product is only as good as the sanitation of everything that comes into contact with that product after it's pasteurized," Mr. O'Hare said.

"After pasteurization, the milk picks up contaminants as it goes through the system. What we do better than our competitors is to hot water sanitize the entire post pasteurization system every day to sterilize it prior to start-up. That provides us with the highest possible level of sanitation after the pasteurizing step. While it's true that everybody washes their system and everybody cold water and chemical sanitizes their system, a lot of companies can't or won't do this hot water sterilization step."