In recent years, the safety of animal original food has become a growing public concern. In order to ensure food safety, China has continuously upgraded relevant standards. Milk is the ideal food for human beings, and raw milk determines the quality and safety of dairy product. In this context, this article reviews and compares the limits for contaminants, mycotoxins, microbial contamination, pesticide residues, and veterinary drug residues in raw milk in China, the European Union, and Japan, and proposes suggestions for improving the raw milk standards in China.

Under adverse environmental conditions, spore-forming bacteria can form spores, which are capable of surviving for many years in extreme environments. When environmental conditions are favorable, they germinate into vegetative cells, which seriously affects product quality and shelf life. At present, the conventional culture method is most commonly used for detecting spore-forming bacteria in foods, which takes 48 hours or more, and cannot accurately and reliably monitor the number of spores, having definite limitations. This paper reviews a variety of methods for the detection of spore-forming bacteria, including the conventional culture method, nucleic acid amplification-based assays, fluorescent dye-based assays, and dipicolinic acid (DPA)-based assays. Furthermore, the advantages of these methods, as well as their detection times and detection limits are summarized with the aim of providing basic knowledge and research background for the detection of spore-producing bacteria.

Milk is an excellent medium for the growth of microorganisms, which is easily contaminated by microorganisms from the environment. Psychrophilic bacteria are the most common microorganisms in cold-stored raw milk. Moreover, psychrophilic bacteria produce heat-resistant proteases and lipases in low-temperature environments, which remain active even after heat treatment, and decompose proteins and fats in liquid milk during storage, thereby affecting the quality of milk. The counting method for psychrophilic bacteria in milk specified by the agricultural industry standard of China takes 10 days to culture samples at 6.5 ℃ for 10 days, which is time-consuming and has low application value in actual production. Therefore, the development of detection technologies for psychrophilic bacteria and their heat-resistant enzymes is very important for ensuring the quality of milk and dairy products. This article reviews a variety of methods for the identification and analysis of psychrophilic bacteria in milk, including polymerase chain reaction (PCR), sequencing, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and loop-mediated isothermal amplification. It provides a reference for the development of new detection technologies for psychrophilic bacteria in milk.