June 1 is the World Milk Day. The idea to make the first summer day the official celebration date belonged to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). We know this product since our childhood, nevertheless nowadays there are many various opinions about whether it is healthy and how to drink it correctly. We telked about properties of milk and about modern technology of dairy products manufacturing with Associate Professor of the Department of Food and Biotechnology of SUSU’s School of Medical Biology, Candidate of Veterinary, Svetlana Merenkova.
— What is the usefulness of milk and why should we include it in our ration?
— It is well-known that milk is biological liquid created by nature for feeding the offspring; it is a supplier of irreplaceable nutrition components and therefore the value of milk is undoubtful. Besides, milk and dairy products are the general sources of calcium macroelement, and its proportion with phosphorus and magnesium is optimal for fixation by human organism. Milk fat is a carrier of phospholipids and lipid soluble vitamins.
— There is a common opinion that milk is a heavy product which is poorly digested, especially by adults. Is this true?
— Regarding the question about drinking milk, there is an opinion that there are some deviations in digestion because of lactose intolerance or allergic reaction to the main milk protein – casein – that can appear at different age. In this case, people can consume dairy products obtained after processing of milk raw material and containing transformed proteins which get easier digested by human organism. Modern production technology allow producing lactose-free dairy products or products enriched with biologically active substances (probiotics and prebiotics).
— What can replace cow milk for people with casein intolerance?
— In this case, the alternative is grain milk which has been becoming more and more popular lately, especially in Asian and European countries. In Russia, only a few enterprises start organizing its production: for example in Chelyabinsk, there is a factory of plant-based drinks (based on grain cultures) which are very healthful.
— What should we pay attention to when drinking dairy products?
— Milk is a product of animal origin, therefore, its quality and safety first of all depend on conditions of milking herd breeding, feed ration of the animals, and the used methods of milk production and its primary treatment. There are people promoting natural food, who prefer drinking unprocessed milk, which is prohibited!
We perform training of technologists of animal-based nutrition products; in the frameworks of education program, we thoroughly study the dairy production technology. Our alumni know very well what is control of raw material quality, how acceptance of raw material is carried out, what quality indicators and processing regimes should be like in order to obtain a safe output product.
— Which regimes of milk processing exist and how do they affect the product’s nutrition value?
— In order to preserve the quality of milk it gets pasteurized, sterilized and processed with the use of ultrahigh-temperature treatment (UTT). In this regard, it should be mentioned that thermal treatment does not leave the main nutrients of milk unchanged. Lactose, when interacting with proteins’ amino acids, gets transformed into lactulose, which enhances functional properties of the product. Scientists are not resting: they develop new regimes of primary milk treatment, targeted at maximal preservation of vitamins at a simultaneous death of microorganisms.
— What information given at a pack of milk or dairy product should be considered when buying the product?
— You should check the document according to which the product has been manufactured: it is either GOST or technical regulations, and whether the product corresponds with current documents. You surely should review the raw materials used for manufacturing the product. When buying cottage cheese or fermented milk products, people should review the composition of ferment microflora and its amount. And you must pay attention to the date of production and the expiry date.
— Is there an optimal regime according to which people should consume dairy products?
— According to recommendations of the Ministry of Healthcare of Russia, generally a person should consume 325 kg of dairy products per year, including about 50 kilograms of milk, kefir, yoghurt with fat status of 1,5-3,2 %, and 58 kilograms of dairy products with a lesser fat status: from 0,5 to 1,5 %.
— What are the latest known novelties in the sphere of dairy products manufacture?
— Lately, milk is used in order to create on its base new functional products that will help to supplement food rations with necessary nutrients. In the course of diseases, consumption of antibiotic preparations and stress, operation of digestive system gets disturbed, and general state of a person worsens. In technology of some dairy products, manufacturers add combined compositions of microorganisms as ferments which help recovering the balance of healthful microflora in the organism. Moreover, there are such methods as adding plant-based raw material to cottage cheese products and fermented milk beverages, which allows enhancing their nutrition value.
— Who in SUSU is researching the technology used in manufacture of dairy products?
— At SUSU SMB’s Department of Food and Biotechnology we have a science school for “Development of innovative technology for milk processing and manufacture of functional dairy products”. This research area is supervised by international partner of the Department, Professor of the University of Melbourne, Muthupandian Ashokkumar. There are Candidate’s and Doctor’s dissertations defended in this area: by Head of the Department, Irina Potoroko; by Associate Professors of the Department: Natalia Popova, Guzel Alkhamova; a dissertation of postgraduate student Daria Uskova is planned to be defended. The developed technology has been patented and presently is being tested at enterprises of the Chelyabinsk region.