Dairy Products

28 Concentrated and Dried Dairy Products

Fluid milk contains approximately 88% water. Concentrated milk products are obtained through partial water removal. Dried dairy products have even greater amounts of water removed to usually less than 4%. The benefits of both these processes include an increased shelf-life, convenience, product flexibility, decreased transportation costs, and storage.

The following products will be discussed here:

Concentrated Dairy Products

  • Evaporated Skim or Whole Milk
  • Sweetened Condensed Milk
  • Condensed Buttermilk
  • Condensed Whey

Dried Dairy Products

  • Milk Powder
  • Whey Powder
  • Whey Protein Concentrates

The principles of evaporation and dehydration can be found in the Dairy Processing section.

Concentrated Dairy Products

Evaporated Skim or Whole Milk

After the raw milk is clarified and standardized, it is given a pre-heating treatment of 93-100° C for 10 to 25 min or 115-128° C for 1 to 6 min.. There are several benefits to this treatment:
  • increases the concentrated milk stability during sterilization; decreases the chance of coagulation taking place during storage
  • decreases the initial microbial load
  • modifies the viscosity of the final product
  • milk enters the evaporator already hot

Milk is then concentrated at low temperatures by vacuum evaporation. This process is based on the physical law that the boiling point of a liquid is lowered when the liquid is exposed to a pressure below atmospheric pressure. In this case, the boiling point is lowered to approximately 40-45° C. This results in little to no cooked flavour. The milk is concentrated to 30-40% total solids.

The evaporated milk is then homogenized to improve the milkfat emulsion stability. There are other benefits particular to this type of product:

  • increased white colour
  • increased viscosity
  • decreased coagulation ability

A second standardization is done at this time to ensure the proper salt balance is present. The ability of milk to withstand intensive heat treatment depends to a great degree on its salt balance.

The product at this point is quite perishable. The fat is easily oxidized and the microbial load, although decreased, is still a threat. The evaporated milk at this stage is often shipped by the tanker for use in other products.

In order to extend the shelf life, evaporated milk can be packaged in cans and then sterilized in an autoclave. Continuous flow sterilization followed by packaging under aseptic conditions is also done. While the sterilization process produces a light brown colouration, the product can be successfully stored for up to a year.

Sweetened Condensed Milk

Where evaporated milk uses sterilization to extend its shelf-life, sweetened condensed milk has an extended shelf-life due to the addition of sugar. Sucrose, in the form of crystals or solution, increases the osmotic pressure of the liquid. This in turn, prevents the growth of microorganisms.

The only real heat treatment (85-90° C for several seconds) this product receives is after the raw milk has been clarified and standardized. The benefits of this treatment include totally destroying osmophilic and thermophilic microorganisms, inactivating lipases and proteases, decreases fat separation and inhibits oxidative changes. Unfortunately it also affects the final product viscosity and may promote the defect age gelation.

The milk is evaporated in a manner similar to the evaporated milk. Although sugar may be added before evaporation, post evaporation addition is recommended to avoid undesirable viscosity changes during storage. Enough sugar is added so that the final concentration of sugar is approximately 45%.

The sweetened evaporated milk is then cooled and lactose crystallization is induced. The milk is inoculated, or seeded, with powdered lactose crystals, then rapidly cooled while being agitated. The lactose can crystalize without the seeding but there is the danger of forming crystals that are too large. This would result in a texture defect similar in ice cream called sandiness, which affects the mouthfeel. By seeding, the number of crystals increases and the size of those crystals decreases.

The product is packaged in smaller containers, such as cans, for retail sales and bulk containers for industrial sales.

Condensed Buttermilk

Buttermilk is a by-product of the butter industry. It can be evaporated on its own or it can be blended with skimmilk and dried to produce skimmilk powder. This blended product may oxidise readily due to the higher fat content. Condensed buttermilk is perishable and, therefore, the supply must be fresh and it must be stored cool.

Condensed Whey

In the process of cheesemaking, there is a lot of whey that needs to be disposed of. One of the ways of utilizing cheese whey is to condense it. The whey contains fat, lactose, ß -lactoglobulin, alpha-lactalbumin, and water. The fat is generally removed by centrifugation and churned as whey cream or used in ice cream. Evaporation is the first step in producing whey powder.

Dried Dairy Products

Milk Powder

Milk used in the production of milk powders is first clarified, standardized and then given a heat treatment. This heat treatment is usually more severe than that required for pasteurization. Besides destroying all the pathogenic and most of the spoilage microorganisms, it also inactivates the enzyme lipase which could cause lipolysis during storage.

The milk is then evaporated prior to drying for the following reasons:

  • less occluded air and longer shelf life for the powder
  • viscosity increase leads to larger powder particles
  • less energy required to remove part of water by evaporation; more economical

Homogenization may be applied to decrease the free fat content. Spray drying is the most used method for producing milk powders. After drying, the powder must be packaged in containers able to provide protection from moisture, air, light, etc. Whole milk powder can then be stored for long periods (up to about 6 months) of time at ambient temperatures.

Skim milk powder (SMP) processing is similar to that described above except for the following points:

  1. contains less milkfat (0.05-0.10%)
  2. heat treatment prior to evaporation can be more or less severe
  3. homogenization not required
  4. maximum shelf life extended to approximately 3 years

Low-heat SMP is given a pasteurization heat treatment and is used in the production of cheese, baby foods etc. High-heat SMP requires a more intense heat treatment in addition to pasteurization. This product is used in the bakery industry, chocolate industry, and other foods where a high degree of protein denaturation is required.

Instant milk powder is produced by partially rehydrating the dried milk powder particles causing them to become sticky and agglomerate. The water is then removed by drying resulting in an increased amount of air incorporated between the powder particles.

Whey Powder

Whey is the by-product in the manufacturing of cheese and casein. Disposing of this whey has long been a problem. For environmental reasons it cannot be discharged into lakes and rivers; for economical reasons it is not desirable to simply dump it to waste treatment facilities. Converting whey into powder has led to a number products that it can be incorporated into. It is most desirable, if and where possible, to use it for human food, as it contains a small but valuable protein component. It is also feasible to use it as animal feed. Between the pet food industry and animal feed mixers, hundred’s of millions of pounds are sold every year. The feed industry may be the largest consumer of dried whey and whey products.

Whey powder is essentially produced by the same method as other milk powders. Reverse osmosis can be used to partially concentrate the whey prior to vacuum evaporation. Before the whey concentrate is spray dried, lactose crystallization is induced to decrease the hygroscopicity. This is accomplished by quick cooling in flash coolers after evaporation. Crystallization continues in agitated tanks for 4 to 24 h.

A fluidized bed may be used to produce large agglomerated particles with free-flowing, non-hygroscopic, no caking characteristics.

Whey Protein Concentrates

Both whey disposal problems and high-quality animal protein shortages have increased world-wide interest in whey protein concentrates. After clarification and pasteurization, the whey is cooled and held to stabilize the calcium phosphate complex, which later decreases membrane fouling. The whey is commonly processed using ultrafiltration, although reverse osmosis, microfiltration, and demineralization methods can be used. During ultrafiltration, the low molecular weight compounds such as lactose, minerals, vitamins and nonprotein nitrogen are removed in the permeate while the proteins become concentrated in the retentate. After ultrafiltration, the retentate is pasteurized, may be evaporated, then dried. Drying, usually spray drying, is done at lower temperatures than for milk in order that large amounts of protein denaturation may be avoided.

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Dairy Science and Technology eBook Copyright © by H. Douglas Goff; Arthur Hill; and Mary Ann Ferrer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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