Dairy product

Dairy products are generally defined as foodstuffsproduced from milk. A production plant for such processing is called a dairy. Raw milk for processing generally comes from cows, but occasionally from other mammalssuch as goats, sheep, water buffalo, yaks, or horses.

Image:Dairy farm.jpg

Types of dairy products

There are more than 30 main products made from milk with a number of sub-products in each category. Dairy products include:

• Milk, after optional homogenization, pasteurization, in several grades after standardization of the fat level
  • Cream, the fat skimmed off the top of milk or separated by machine-centrifuges
    • Sour cream, cream that has been fermentedby the bacteria Streptococcuslactis and Leuconostoc citrovorum
    • Crème fraîche, slightly fermented cream
  • Cultured buttermilk, fermented concentrated (water removed) milk using the same bacteria as sour cream
  • Milk powder(or powdered milk), produced by removing the water from milk
    • Whole milk & buttermilk
    • Skim milk
    • Cream
    • High milk-fat & nutritional powders (for infant formulas)
    • Cultured and confectionery powders
  • Condensed milk, milk which has been concentrated by evaporation, often with sugar added for longer life in an opened can
  • Evaporated milk, (less concentrated than condensed) milk without added sugar
  • Khoa
  • Infant formula, dried milk powder with specific additives for feeding human infants

• Butter, mostly milk fat, produced by churning cream
  • Buttermilk, the liquid left over after producing butter from cream, often dried as livestockfood
  • Ghee, clarified butter, by gentle heating of butter and removal of the solid matter
  • Anhydrousmilkfat

• Cheese, produced by coagulating milk, separating from whey and letting it ripen, generally with bacteriaand sometimes also with certain molds
  • Curds, the soft curdled part of milk (or skim milk) used to make cheese (or casein)
  • Whey, the liquid drained from curds and used for further processing or as a livestock food
  • Cottage cheese
  • Cream cheese, produced by the addition of cream to milk and then curdled to form a rich curd or cheese made from skim milk with cream added to the curd
  • Fromage frais

• Casein
  • Caseinates
  • Milk proteinconcentrates and isonates
  • Wheyprotein concentrates and isonates
  • Hydrolysates
  • Mineralconcentrates

• Yogurt, milk fermented by Streptococcussalivarius ssp. thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus sometimes with additional bacteria, such as Lactobacillusacidophilus
  • Ayran
  • Lassi

• Gelato, slowly frozen milk and water

• Ice cream, slowly frozen cream and emulsifying additives
  • Ice milk
  • Frozen custard
  • Frozen yogurt, yogurt with emulsifiers that is frozen

• Other
  • Kumiss/Airag
  • Viili
  • Kajmak
  • Kephir
  • Filmjölk
  • Piimä

Got Milk?is an international organization supporting dairy products, especially milk.

History

Most dairy products were developed in Europe, the Middle Eastand Africa; the people of these continents have traditionally been the most active in terms of exploiting cattleas a primary food source. Some dairy products originate from other countries, like Indianghee. A small number of non-cowdairy products exist like Italianwater buffalomozzarellacheese, yakbutter in Tibetor the fermented horsemilk drink called airagin Mongolia.

Dairy products were exported to the rest of the world during the 16th and 17th centuries. They are now universally popular, despite the fact that some people cannot consume them in adulthood because of lactose intolerance.

Criticism

Vegansand some vegetariansavoid dairy products due to various reasons, such as ethic, health, environmentalconsiderations, and others.

Eggs as dairy?

Eggsand milk products are in some circumstances grouped together under the heading of dairy, probably because fresh eggs were often sold by milkmen. For example, the Open Directory Projectat one point listed cooking eggs as a subcategory of cooking dairy products. However, dictionary definitions of "dairy" are limited to milk products and, as a result, will always exclude eggs and egg products.

Beef as dairy?

Although milk comes from cows, beefis not considered a dairy product. Dairy products are considered by some to be vegetarianwhile beef, as meat, is not.

External links

• Got Milk?
• MooMilk.com -- Dairy Industry information for children and dairy professionals
• NZMP list of ingredients manufactured from milk
• Questions and Answers on dairy products
• International Dairy Schoolda:Mælkeprodukter

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dairy+product Wikipedia article Dairy product.