Abstract: Somatic cell number is an important indicator of indicating raw milk quality and health status of dairy cows. In 2018,China’s national food safety standards plan included somatic cell number limit grading standards in the first time,thus the accurate detection of somatic cell number will directly affect the correct grading of raw milk products. Based on the importance of somatic cells to the quality of dairy products,we summarized and compared the somatic cells limit standards of raw milk at home and abroad in this review. We analyzed the existing somatic cell detection methods and principles,as well as the key detection parameters of the method performance of different principle instruments. We also outlined the great importance of establishing measurement calibration for ensuring accurate and comparable results of somatic cell detection instruments.

Key words: somatic cell number, raw milk, national standard, measurement, calibration