ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION Milk fat has always been an important component of the human diet through the consumption of dairy products like fluid milk, cheese, and butter. It has always been appreciated as a natural product with incomparable organoleptic properties. In recent years, the demand for milk fat from both retail and commercial markets has decreased considerably. This decline in market share is mainly due to economic reasons. Cheaper modified vegetable oils with improved functional properties became available, which led to the substitution of vegetable spreads for butter. Additionally, milk fat suffers from a negative health image because of its undesirable fatty acid composition and considerable cholesterol content. In the mind of consumers, milk fat is a saturated and hypercholesterolemic fat and its consumption is associated with increased risk for coronary heart disease.
