Dairy product

Milk products and production relationships

A dairy product or milk product is food produced from the milk of mammals, primarily cows, water buffaloes, goats, sheep, yaks, horses, camels, and domestic buffaloes. A facility that processes milk is a dairy or a dairy factory. Dairy products are commonly found in European, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Central Asian cuisines, but are largely absent from East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisines.

Types of dairy products

See also: List of dairy products

A dairy farm

A selection of three common dairy products made by a South African dairy company: a box of full cream, long life milk, a bottle of strawberry drinking yogurt, and a carton of passion fruit yogurt

The milk products of the Water buffaloes (super carabaos, Philippine Carabao Center)

• Milk after optional homogenization, pasteurization, in several grades after standardization of the fat level, and possible addition of the bacteria Streptococcus lactis and Leuconostoc citrovorum
  • Crème fraîche, slightly fermented cream
    • Clotted cream, thick, spoonable cream made by heating milk
    • Single cream, double cream and whipping cream
    • Smetana, Central and Eastern European variety of sour cream
  • Cultured milk resembling buttermilk, but uses different yeast and bacterial cultures
  • Kefir, fermented milk drink from the Northern Caucasus
  • Kumis/Airag, slightly fermented mares' milk popular in Central Asia
  • Powdered milk (or milk powder), produced by removing the water from (usually skim) milk
    • Whole milk products
    • Buttermilk products
    • Skim milk
    • Whey products
    • High milk-fat and nutritional products (for infant formulas)
    • Cultured and confectionery products
  • Condensed milk, milk which has been concentrated by evaporation, with sugar added for reduced process time and longer life in an opened can
  • Khoa, milk which has been completely concentrated by evaporation, used in Indian cuisine including gulab jamun, peda, etc.)
  • Evaporated milk, (less concentrated than condensed) milk without added sugar
  • Ricotta, acidified whey, reduced in volume
  • Infant formula, dried milk powder with specific additives for feeding human infants
  • Baked milk, a variety of boiled milk that has been particularly popular in Russia
• Butter, mostly milk fat, produced by churning cream
  • Buttermilk, the liquid left over after producing butter from cream, often dried as livestock feed
  • Ghee, clarified butter, by gentle heating of butter and removal of the solid matter
  • Smen, a fermented, clarified butter used in Moroccan cooking
  • Anhydrous milkfat (clarified butter)
• Cheese, produced by coagulating milk, separating from whey and letting it ripen, generally with bacteria and sometimes also with certain molds
  • Curds, the soft, curdled part of milk (or skim milk) used to make cheese
  • Paneer
  • Whey, the liquid drained from curds and used for further processing or as a livestock feed
  • Cottage cheese
  • Quark
  • Cream cheese, produced by the addition of cream to milk and then curdled to form a rich curd or cheese
  • Fromage frais
• Casein are
  • Caseinates, sodium or calcium salts of casein
  • Milk protein concentrates and isolates
  • Whey protein concentrates and isolates, reduced lactose whey
  • Hydrolysates, milk treated with proteolytic enzymes to alter functionality
  • Mineral concentrates, byproduct of demineralizing whey
• Yogurt, milk fermented by Streptococcus salivarius ssp. thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus sometimes with additional bacteria, such as Lactobacillus acidophilus
  • Ayran
  • Lassi, Indian subcontinent
  • Leben
• Clabber, milk naturally fermented to a yogurt-like state
• Gelato, slowly frozen milk and water, lesser fat than ice cream
• Ice cream, slowly frozen cream, milk, flavors and emulsifying additives (dairy ice cream)
  • Ice milk, low-fat version of ice cream
  • Frozen custard
  • Frozen yogurt, yogurt with emulsifiers
• Other
  • Viili
  • Kajmak
  • Filmjölk
  • Piimä
  • Vla
  • Dulce de leche
  • Skyr
  • Junket, milk solidified with rennet

Health

Dairy products can cause health issues for individuals who have lactose intolerance or a milk allergy.

Additionally dairy products including cheese, ice cream, milk, butter, and yogurt can contribute significant amounts of cholesterol and saturated fat to the diet. Diets high in fat and especially in saturated fat can increase the risk of heart disease and can cause other serious health problems. However, it has been shown that there is no connection between dairy consumption (excluding butter) and cardiovascular disease, even though dairy tends to be higher in saturated fats.

Avoidance

Some groups avoid dairy products for non-health related reasons:

• Religious - Some religions restrict or do not allow for the consumption of dairy products. For example, some scholars of Jainism advocate not consuming any dairy products because dairy is perceived to involve violence against cows. Strict Judaism requires that meat and dairy products not be served at the same meal, served or cooked in the same utensils, or stored together, as prescribed in Deuteronomy 14:21.
• Ethical - Veganism is the avoidance of all animal products, including dairy products, most often due to the ethics regarding how dairy products are produced. The ethical reasons for avoiding dairy include how dairy is produced, how the animals are handled, and the environmental effect of dairy production.

See also

• Fermented milk products
• List of dairy product companies in the United States
• List of foods
• Plant milk

References

• Britannica, Enclyclopaedia. "Encylcopedia Britannica". 

Further reading

• Rankin, H. F. (1922) Imbucase: the Story of the B. C. I. C. of the Ministry of Food. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Press (B.C.I.C.=Butter and Cheese Imports Committee)

External links

• Questions and Answers on dairy products
• Guide for homemade kefir