Where does milk waste occur in your supply-chain from farm to plate?

Last updated 31/01/2025

Australian dairy is committed to reducing food waste. Dairy Australia estimates around 0.1% of total on-farm milk production is wasted, due to factors including milking cows that are too fresh (too young), milk that is abnormal in composition, or milk from cows that have been treated with medicine to combat sickness that has a minimum withdrawal time. This waste is often recovered for reuse such as diluted irrigation sprays onto pastures or off-site uses such as animal feed for piggeries.

At the manufacturing stage, between 1 and 5% of raw milk input is considered waste mainly due to system failures and quality control rejects. This variation in percentage is based on the site and the types of dairy products made. For example, a fresh milk site would be on the low end whereas a medium sized cheese or yoghurt maker that is producing a number of different products and flavours would have more waste because they are needing to clean more frequently between production runs or have smaller batch sizes. A large amount of this is recovered for offsite applications such as composting, with the rest disposed to sewer.

In the final stages of the supply chain, damage and breakage during distribution, transport and retailing is a common source of milk wastage, as well as having excess quantities in retail displays, increasing the likelihood of use-by dates being reached before being sold.