A course in home based dairy processing

I like yoghurt and I like cheese. What I don’t like is their steep price.

Unfortunately there is not much we can do about it because we are not really a milk producing country and most of the dairy and milk products we consume have to be imported.

That was why when I got a chance to attend a short training course in a home based dairy products processing at the University of the Philippines in Los Banos, I did not let it pass.

The training was held for four days (July 18-21, 2016) at the Dairy Training Institute in the university. During the training we were taught basic milk chemistry and evaluation, handling and processing of milk into various products such as flavored milk, yoghurt, cottage cheese, mozzarella, milk candy and ice cream.

I really appreciated the effort of the DTRI people, especially our trainor Ms. Aida Borromeo-Lanaca who taught us as much as possible as many things in the short time that we had. I was also surprised and very happy with what we made. The yoghurt was soooo good that even if that was the only thing I learned and which I could replicate at home. I would be contented.

Ms. Aida Borromeo Lanaca (in yellow) our trainor showing us how to pasteurize milk

If there is one thing though that I hope the training staff and the DTRI people can improve on, it is that they should work on coming up with a decent, well written and comprehensive basic reference/training manual (printed or electronic) instead of handing out power point printouts of the lectures. I find this practice cheap and unworthy of a respectable institution. It gives the training a semblance of being just hastily and haphazardly organized. Very ad hoc.

Many people in the business of teaching seems to have been trapped in a culture of complacency that they have forgotten the fact that the beginning of teaching and the effective transfer of knowledge is with a good book. A book that can be improved, revised and refined over time. I hope that before DTRI holds another training, they can work on this training manual first.

There is no question about the competence and knowledge of our workshop trainers with regards to what they taught us. Certainly they can make good consultants. But writing a book may require other skills and may require the involvement of other people who are up to the job.

In fairness to DTRI, it is not alone with this problem. Many other training institutions are in the same boat.

Change is coming. But is DTRI ready for change?

Group picture with my co trainees and our milk products