What is milk made of? How to make milk powder?

Milk is one of the most important productspower supply. So the nature is arranged, that from the first day of life newborn children and young mammals feed only on mother's milk. It contains all the necessary substances for the normal life of the growing organism. But, becoming more mature, a person does not refuse milk. We use it both in kind and in processed (fermented baked milk, yogurt, cream, sour cream, cottage cheese, butter). There is whole milk and fat-free, steam and melted, condensed and ... dry. And if with sour-milk products all is more or less clear, then the last two cause a keen interest, especially in children. Surely a little fidgue pestered you with the question: "What do milk do?" In this article, we will try to find an answer to it and learn a lot about the product familiar from childhood.

What do real milk make of?

Of course, if you think about it, the question "from whatmake milk "seems stupid. But it only seems so. Of course, it's not about natural products. Another thing - the purchase of milk. What is it made of? A similar question from the lips of a city kid can be heard quite often, and there is no need to be surprised. In fact, it's the same cow's milk, it's just processed before we get to our table. Some unscrupulous manufacturers can dilute it with water or add vegetable fats to increase its fat content. But this is extremely rare. Most of the milk is made from natural raw materials.

Composition

It should be noted that people are used to usingfood is not only cow's milk - in some regions it is obtained from females of deer, goats, mares, buffalo, camels. The chemical composition of these products, of course, varies. We will focus on the cow, because most often on our table there is exactly it. So, it contains about 85% water, 3% protein (it is called casein), milk fat - up to 4.5%, up to 5.5% milk sugar (lactose), as well as vitamins and minerals. At factories and dairies, where milk is made (more precisely, processed), much attention is paid to fat content and protein content. At high fat content of the initial product, the yield of butter is greater, and the protein is important in the production of cottage cheese and various cheeses.

How do milk in the factory and dairy factories

On the shelves of numerous shops,you can find milk. But before getting there, it is processed. It is needed in order to protect the product. Of course, useful properties are lost, but the part still remains. Consider these processes in order. Raw milk supplied to the plant is first cooled, then homogenized. Homogenization is necessary to ensure that when milk is poured into packages, creams are not set on the surface. In fact, this milk fat, which is broken into small pellets in a homogenizer, is evenly distributed throughout the mass of milk. This allows to improve the taste qualities of the original product, improves its digestibility. Then follows the thermal treatment (it is necessary for the disinfection of milk, because it can find not only useful microorganisms, but also pathogens) - it can be pasteurization, ultrapasterization or sterilization.

Types of heat treatment

The most common is the first method. It is the most sparing and allows you to save not only taste and smell, but also useful properties. In addition, after pasteurization, milk is stored longer than usual. In modern industry, ultra-pasteurization has increasingly become used. This method differs from the previous one by using ultrahigh temperature. Of course, there are no useful properties in it at all. Sterilization is also characterized by treatment at high temperature. Such milk is stored the longest (up to 6 months or even up to a year). As a rule, after heat treatment, bottling should be carried out in polyethylene or plastic containers and sale through trade networks.

About milk powder

In addition to regular milk, there is also a dry milk. Probably not every one of us knows how to make milk powder. For the first time this product became known back in 1832, when the Russian chemist M. Dirchov founded his production. In fact, the question: "What do dry milk do?" The answer is simple: from a natural cow. The process is a 2-step process. On the first, the milk is subjected to thickening in apparatus with high pressure. The resulting mixture is then dried in special devices. As a result, there is a white powder - this is dry milk, or rather its dry residue, which has lost 85% of its volume (water). The only advantage of such a product in front of whole milk is the possibility of its long-term storage. Plus, it takes up little space, which is very important for transportation. The composition of dry milk is the same as that of whole milk, it simply does not have water. Of what make the milk dry, it is now clear. Let us pass to the field of its application.

Where dry milk is used

How to make milk powder, we found out, nowconsider where it is used. Most often, it is common in regions where it is not possible to obtain a single natural product. The powder is simply dissolved in warm water (in a proportion of 1 to 3), and then already used for the intended purpose. Also, dried milk is the basis for the production of baby food (dried milk porridge) and feed for small calves. The product can be found on a free sale.

About baked milk

There is another kind of this indispensable forhuman product - milk melted. Many of us are probably wondering how to make melted milk. Its difference from the whole is the expressed taste of pasteurization and the presence of a cream shade. The process presents the following picture: whole milk is mixed with cream until a mass fraction of fat in the raw material is 4 or 6% (this process is called normalization). Then the mixture is homogenized (this process is mentioned above) and pasteurization with a long time (about 4 hours at a temperature of 95-99 ° C). At the same time the raw materials are periodically mixed, so that a film of proteins and fat does not form on its surface. It is a long-term exposure to temperature contributes to the appearance of cream color (milk sugar actively interacts with amino acids, resulting in melanoid, giving a shade). The final stage is cooling and filling the melted milk in a container. That's all the wisdom. It should also be noted that from marmalade (this is what this kind of milk is called in the people), they produce fermented milk and katik (they use different starter cultures, they result in a sour milk product with a thick consistency and taste of melted milk).

About skimmed milk

Very often in the dairy department stores you canfind the package with the inscription "Skim milk". What it is? In fact, this is normal milk, just without fat, that is, without cream. As a rule, the percentage of fat here is no more than 0.5%. And how do low-fat milk? It is obtained by separating the whole product in special separator devices. There is a separation of cream from milk under the influence of centrifugal forces. As a result, a fat-free liquid is obtained.

Scope of skim milk

Milk packaging always shows the exactthe amount of fat and protein in the product. It should be noted that it is impossible to get milk with a specific fat content from a cow. This indicator is not the same even for one cow in different seasons. Since GOSTs have their own standards and requirements, milk has to be normalized with fat-free, in order to obtain the required fat content (2.5%, 3.2% or 6%). Also, such milk is used for the production of low-fat kefir, cottage cheese or yogurt. You can buy it in a packaged form in any store. It costs, of course, cheaper than usual.

Milk and its benefits can be spoken endlesslylong. It is not for nothing that we have always been told since childhood: "Drink milk - it is very useful". And it's true, our life begins with him - immediately after the birth of the baby must be applied to the chest, so that he received the first portion of nutritious colostrum. Thanks to the mother's milk, the child's immunity is strengthened, the baby grows and develops. Surprisingly, in the first months of life, it fully meets the child's needs for water, nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Surely any of us noticed that at the heart of healthy and proper nutrition are always dairy and sour-milk products. For growing babies it is very useful cottage cheese, it has a lot of calcium, which is necessary for the growth of bones and healthy teeth. Elderly doctors also recommend that you include milk in your diet, as the bones in this period of life rapidly lose calcium. Whatever one may say, this product is indispensable. In this article, we examined what milk is made of, what kinds of it exist and how useful it is. Surely you learned a lot of new and interesting for yourself. Be healthy!