From Farm to Table

The consumption of dairy products, made from the milk of cows, sheep, goats and buffalo, among other mammalian species, is almost as old as human civilization, with evidence of these products stretching back many millenia. The production of different kinds of dairy products originated as different ways to preserve the valuable nutritional goodness of milk components (lactose, fat, protein, vitamins and minerals) and make the milk safe for consumption, using basic principles like fermentation, heating, separation, dehydration, acidification, smoking and salting, which are the keys to producing products like cheese, butter and yogurt. Many dairy products today are still produced using the same basic principles, and in this book an introduction to the origins, constituents and properties of milk is given, alongside an outline of the ways in which dairy products are made including the development of advanced products like infant formula and formulated nutritional products. The text