What is and how you get powder milk?
Milk is a valuable food supply and because of this people have always been in search for ways to preserve it under different forms.
Obtaining powder milk is a physical, simple process with two phases:
- Phase 1 – the milk is boiled and 87% of the contained water evaporates naturally, resulting concentrated milk
- Phase 2 – the milk is pulverized in a fine mist on to a hot air jet. The water is eliminated completely and the result is powder milk
Following this process all nutrients in milk are preserves: proteins, fats, sugars and minerals, the residing matter being powder milk.
The general perception is that powder milk has a negative impact on ones health but the process from which powder milk is obtained is one free from any chemical interference or additions that might harm the human body.
Powder milk is made out of the proteins, fats, sugars and minerals in milk but in a concentrated form.
Why powder milk is added into dairy products?
The milk collection process has a natural seasonality: caws have more milk in the spring time and summer time when they graze, and lees milk in fall and winter, when they are fed fodder.
This seasonality leaves its mark on the milk chemical composition which will have slight variations, depending on what the animal is fed.
The milk collected in the summer time has fewer nutrients that the one collected in the winter time, though in less quantity is richer in fats and minerals.
Considering the above, in order to ensure the same nutritional values of milk, regardless of season, the recipes are standardized by adding a certain percentage of powder milk which will increase the proteins and fats natural content of the milk.
Unlike the milk collection process, the dairy consumption has a reverse seasonality decreasing in the summer time when fruit and vegetables abound and increasing in the cooler periods when the body needs more proteins and fats. This is why in the summer time there is and surplus of milk that is transformed by dairy producers into powder milk (butter of curd) in order to be used during winter when the milk is scarce or during summer so that high nutritional values are insured.
Powder milk added in some periods of the year into some of the Covalact de Tara products is obtained from the milk collected from Covasna and surrounding counties and processed within Covalact factory.
Powder milk is as well used in other industries such as: ice cream, whipped cream, cheese, chocolate etc.
