The decrease is due partly to the modern milk robots that clean and milk the cows, partly to the modern cowsheds and that the cooling has become better. In addition to the amount of bacteria having decreased, the composition has also changed, according to Åse Lundh, professor emerita in animal food at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
According to the EU's rules, there should be a maximum of 100,000 bacteria per milliliter of milk, but Swedish milk contains only one tenth of that. The low proportion means that the milk keeps longer and that there is less risk of getting sick from it.
This is, however, not good when it's time to make flavorful aged hard cheese. Compared to 50 years ago, there are fewer and other bacteria, which means that the maturation can take twice as long, which becomes expensive for both manufacturers and consumers.
We do not have these flavor-producing lactic acid bacteria in the milk to the same extent as we had before, says Åse Lundh to the radio channel.
