ABSTRACT
Milk provides complete nutrition for the neonate and is, therefore, often described as nature’s ultimate food. Not only does it provide energy in the form of lipids, carbohydrates and proteins, but it also provides essential nutrients and micronutrients in the form of minerals, trace elements, vitamins, nucleotides, etc. Commodity dairy ingredients include various milk powders and whey powders which are, in general, prepared from liquid dairy streams without further fractionation. Skimming of the milk is typically done centrifugally, wherein the milk is separated into a cream phase and a skim milk phase. Evaporation is typically performed to solid contents in the range 50-55% dry matter, which is slightly higher than for skim milk powder, because the viscosity of whole milk concentrates is lower than that of skim milk concentrates. Caseins and caseinates are a class of milk protein ingredients that have been produced industrially for nearly a century.
