All You Need to Know About Dairy Products
Dairy is an essential food source in many cultures. It refers to products made from the Milk produced by dairy animals like cows, goats, water buffalo, and sheep. A wide variety of food products can be made from nutrient-dense Milk, making Milk one of the most recognized essential food sources.
Food products that are made from Milk are known as dairy. Popular products that can be made from this unique food source are whole Milk, butter, buttermilk cheese, yogurt, condensed milk, powdered milk, and so on. Milk and dairy products also find widespread use in baking and cooking. Making delicious cakes, cookies, brownies, muffins, bread, biscuits, and puff pastry is challenging without using dairy products.
Milk production is an integral part of agriculture, and its products are consumed by different cultures worldwide. Whether it is in its raw or processed form, it is safe to say that people have found creative ways to consume this nutrient-dense food.부산역 맛집
How Are Common Dairy Products Made?
There are a variety of products that can be obtained from Milk produced by dairy farming. These dairy products were made from years of different experimental activities carried out by different cultures that rely on agriculture, especially dairy farming, for sustenance. Dairy foods are acquired by making subtle changes to the composition of Milk.
● Liquid Milk
This is the most common way Milk is marketed and consumed. After obtaining Milk from a dairy animal, it is transported to a dairy processing plant where it is pasteurized. Pasteurization is the process of heating milk up to temperatures usually lower than 100°Celcius (212 Fahrenheit) and rapidly cooling it after a while to sterilize the product and preserve its quality for more extended periods. Unpasteurized Milk may contain salmonella, E. Coli, and other disease-causing bacteria, which are harmful microorganisms to humans.
Whole Milk, low-fat Milk, and skimmed Milk are differentiated by monitoring the amount of fat in the Milk. Once the right consistency has been reached, Milk is bottled and distributed to stores.
● Condensed Milk
It is made by partially removing the water content of whole or skimmed milk. It goes through heat treatment just like liquid Milk and can be sold in sweetened or unsweetened form.
● Cheese
To make cheese, the first step is to add cultures to prepare Milk. This process increases the Milk’s acidity and ferments it. When the Milk is fermented enough, rennet composed of a mixture of enzymes is added to the Milk to thicken or curdle it. Different types of cheese are made by switching the cultures used to ferment the Milk. The resulting mixture is heated, stirred, and cut to separate the curd from the whey. Whey is the liquid byproduct of curdling fermented Milk. After separating the curd from the whey, it is either salted or brined, depending on the cheese being made, and it is pressed in a mold to form a predefined shape. Then, the cheese might be stored and aged. Swiss cheese is a favorite type of cheese that has characteristic holes that are a result of dry aging. Cheddar, mozzarella, gouda, and blue cheese are other common types of cheese.
● Yogurt
Yogurt is made similarly to cheese with curdling processed skipped. Yogurt cultures are added to prepared Milk for fermentation. This process converts a portion of lactose present in the Milk into lactic acid. The type of yogurt you want to make depends on the yogurt culture used and the duration of the fermentation process. Unlike Milk, yogurt lasts longer before it gets spoiled due to its high acidic content inhibiting bacteria growth.
● Cream
This is a type of dairy product that is composed of the fat found in Milk. Dairy cream is rich in milk fat, and it is mainly used as an ingredient in cooking and baking.
● Butter
Butter is another popular dairy product that is consumed in one form or another all over the world. It is mainly used as a spread on bread or toast. Also, it has found applications in frying, cooking, and baking. Butter is made by churning cream to separate fat from liquid. The separated liquid is known as buttermilk, and it is extensively used in baking as well.
What Does it Mean to Be Lactose Intolerant?
Lactose is the disaccharide sugar found in Milk. It is made up of glucose and galactose. An enzyme known as lactase is responsible for breaking down this disaccharide into simple sugars that can be easily absorbed into the bloodstream. Around 70 percent of people worldwide are lactose intolerant to some degree. The results of these statistics are not spread evenly over the continents. Research shows that more people from Asia and Africa have lactose malabsorption, while most people in northern Europe can easily digest lactose.
All human babies are born with this enzyme which helps to break down and digest Milk, their primary food source. However, the production of this enzyme decreases with age, and individuals are split into two main categories regarding whether their bodies can digest Milk.
● Lactase Persistent
These are people that can digest lactose found in nonhuman Milk. This trait is a genetic adaptation to domesticated dairy animals’ consumption of milk or dairy products. Lactase Persistence is common in cultures that started early domestication of cattle and dairy farming. The introduction of humans with lactase persistence or tolerance results from adaptation to take advantage of the common food source at a particular time.
● Lactase Nonpersistent
Individuals with this trait lack the enzyme lactase responsible for digesting lactose. They cannot digest lactose into its constituent parts; glucose and galactose. If these people consume Milk or dairy products, they will exhibit symptoms related to gastrointestinal problems. Symptoms may include: bloating, nausea, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea. The standard treatment for this trait is to avoid ingesting dairy products entirely or take a lactase enzyme supplement before eating dairy.