**1.3 Processing of milk**

Milk is a food that has a reduced shelf life and is highly perishable: it is an excellent medium for the growth of microorganisms, especially bacterial pathogens that can cause the deterioration of the product and diseases in consumers. The processing of milk allows it to be kept for days, weeks or months and helps to reduce the diseases transmitted by this food [24].

The production of dairy products offers small dairy producers greater cash income than the sale of raw milk and greater opportunities to reach regional and urban markets. In addition, it helps to cope with the fluctuations caused by the seasonality of the milk supply that limits the elaboration and commercialization of dairy products in many developing countries, causing important variations in the supply. The transformation of milk, as in the case of cheese making, contributes to the generation of jobs both in production unit to obtain the raw material and outside the production unit, involved in the collection, processing and marketing of the product [24].
