Milk is an indispensable product that must be present in the diet of every person. Vitamin A, lactose, protein, calcium and other elements contained in this product bring untold benefits to our body. It is from milk that you can cook a huge number of dishes (desserts, cheeses, drinks, etc.).

Mother's milk is the first food a baby receives when it is born. Given the value and indispensability of this product, every housewife strives to ensure that this ingredient is always in her refrigerator.

Having decided to buy milk in a supermarket, many doubt its usefulness and naturalness. Fears of the harmfulness of the product from the store overpower the desire to cook something tasty from it.

Research: the difference between homemade and store-bought milk

A lot of laboratory studies have been carried out in order to confirm or refute the harm of store-bought milk. It should be noted that the product presented on the shelves of supermarkets is pasteurized. In addition, it contains a minimum amount of antibiotics. These procedures are necessary in order to extend the shelf life of milk and avoid the reproduction of harmful microorganisms in it.

Homemade is sold immediately "from under the cow" (goat). If you graze an animal on your own, you know that it feeds exclusively on juicy green grass - of course, this milk is better and healthier.

If you think that market milk is better than store-bought milk, this is not entirely correct. You do not know how a cow eats and in what conditions it lives (hygiene, naturalness of food and feed). Giving an unknown product to a child is highly discouraged - since in case of poisoning there will not even be anyone to complain about. If the milk bought in the store is bad, you can always complain about the manufacturer to the relevant services.

If we discuss the harm of store-bought milk, then it exists, but in much smaller quantities than with unscrupulous market sellers. The pasteurization process kills not only harmful microorganisms, but also a small amount of useful elements. Despite this, vitamins, calcium and necessary enzymes will enter the body. Antibiotics are added in a minimal amount. They do not harm the body, but they act as a guarantee that you will not catch E. coli or any other infection.

Many mothers at the time of the start of complementary feeding of babies have the following question: “Is it possible to give store-bought milk to children?”. The answer will be positive. It is recommended to buy the product in sterilized glass bottles. Such a product does not contain a large percentage of fat (which eliminates sharp pains in the abdomen) and is as safe as possible for babies.

A similar answer will be in the event of such a question as: “Is it possible to give store-bought milk to older people?” After all, older people have problems with digestion and immunity. Too fatty product with intestinal infections can cause complications and problems.

Is it possible to drink store-bought milk or give preference to market milk?

At the moment, store-bought milk is safer and even healthier. Despite pasteurization, it still contains calcium and protein. But the product purchased from the market is subject to mandatory boiling in the process, which literally disappears all the useful elements and vitamins.

The composition of milk is very diverse. It includes about 100 different components.

Proteins are represented by casein, lactoalbumin, lactoglobulin. The latter has bactericidal properties, which is why drinking milk is so useful for colds. Just do not boil it, as some of the amino acids and proteins precipitate.

What is useful milk

Milk fat contains saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, and despite the fact that there are about 1.5 times more saturated, milk fat is well absorbed, as it is in this product in the form of an emulsion. In addition, it has a well-balanced cholesterol and lecithin.

Milk sugar - lactose - is found only in milk. It is the main energy supplier for babies. Some people cannot drink milk precisely because they are lactose sensitive.

Calcium and phosphorus are found in milk in large quantities and in a good proportion for absorption.

Summer milk contains many vitamins A, D, E; in winter, milk is rich in vitamins B2 and B6. Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in milk is negligible, besides, it is lost during boiling and pasteurization. Relatively little in milk and iron with magnesium.

What are the benefits of dairy products

Cream is richer than milk in fat, but poorer in proteins, sugar and mineral salts. Compared to skim milk, cream contains much more phosphorus salts and a lot of lecithin.

Lactic acid products (yogurt, fermented baked milk, kefir, sour cream, cottage cheese, cheese, etc.). Lactic acid bacteria involved in the fermentation of milk and cream produce B vitamins - substances that have antibacterial properties and the ability to inhibit the growth of putrefactive microbes in the intestines.

Proteins under the influence of lactic acid bacteria turn into small and delicate flakes of polypeptides, which are more quickly absorbed by the body than untreated milk proteins.

Lactose is converted to lactic acid. People who are hypersensitive to lactose can safely consume sour milk products.

Calcium and phosphorus are more easily broken down and absorbed faster, as this is facilitated by lactic acid.

Is store-bought milk good for you?

In today's world, such a product - it would seem the most natural and natural - like milk can soon be listed in the Red Book. Store shelves are filled with pasteurized, sterilized, reconstituted milk and milk drinks.

The recent melamine scandal in China forced our authorities to impose a ban on the import of powdered milk and dairy products from China, but where is the guarantee that the same powder has not passed through customs earlier and is not lying somewhere in the manufacturer's warehouse, waiting in the wings.

Recall that due to the high content of melamine in milk in China, 53 thousand children suffered, four of whom died. Dairy producers have successfully diluted ordinary cow's milk with water, and since its consistency noticeably thinned, melamine, used in the manufacture of plastics, was added to such milk, which brought the protein content in milk to the desired amount.

In addition to melamine, antibiotics can also be found in milk, which are used to treat sick dairy cows. Such cows should be separated from the general herd, but who will monitor this? Very often, such milk ends up in a common tank.

Milk fat substitute may also be present in milk. Natural milk fat, taken from whole milk, is not cheap, and has long been in short supply, so manufacturers do not hesitate to add a substitute to sour cream, cottage cheese and other dairy products.

Normalized reconstituted or “recombined” milk cannot be called real and healthy either - it is restored from milk powder, in which oxysterols are formed when it is dried. They affect blood vessels more actively than cholesterol, and according to the results of recent medical experiments, they can lead to cancer. Therefore, natural and powdered milk are not identical products in terms of their usefulness.

Therefore, if you choose from all types of milk, then the “most useful”, which has retained at least some share of naturalness, remains pasteurized. During pasteurization, milk is heated to 67 degrees for 30 minutes. This is the most gentle way of processing natural milk, used almost everywhere in the world. Thus, the manufacturer kills two birds with one stone - it increases the shelf life of the product and carries out its antibacterial treatment.

The situation with sterilization is much more complicated - milk is heated to 100 degrees several times, after which it is instantly cooled. This method completely destroys all the enzymes contained in milk, and is used for long-term transportation. Alas, the formula for store milk today is as follows - the longer the shelf life, the more useless the liquid inside the package.

If you have ever drunk real fresh milk, dairy products from the store may seem strange to you - “powdered”, of dubious taste and quality. What is the difference between milk from under a cow and what manufacturers offer us? What “surprises” can you encounter when choosing store-bought milk? About all this - on MedAboutMe.

Milk is one of the most desired products on our table. According to consumer demand, it can only be compared with bread! This product has high nutritional properties and will appeal to both adults and children. According to experts, fresh milk is the most beneficial for health. But unfortunately, not everyone has the opportunity to purchase it. Most often you have to be content with factory milk.

On the shelves of shops there is milk for every taste and budget: fatty, nutritious and fat-free “dietary”, Mozhaisk and baked, sterilized and pasteurized, with a short shelf life and something that will not go bad for nine months. How not to get confused in all this diversity and choose a really useful product for the family?

The main disadvantage of industrial milk, according to consumers, is its taste. It is inferior to real fresh milk. Trying to figure out what is the reason, many consumers come to the conclusion that all store-bought milk is “powdered”. But actually it is not! The unusual taste of store-bought milk is due to other reasons.

Few people know that farm milk (what we call "homemade" or "village") and a product of industrial production have a different structure. There are over 2 billion large fat globules floating in every milliliter of farm milk. While in the product from the store, these balls are broken into dust, and the size of each of them does not exceed 1 micron! Store-bought milk does not form foam when boiled, it is impossible to make butter and remove cream from it. But this is not the only reason for the change in the taste of the product!

Another point that directly affects the quality of milk is its processing. The temperature control required to make a product safe and drinkable gives the drink a taste of pasteurization. This is a forced measure, without which it is impossible to release good milk on the shelves, which will not cause poisoning and problems in the digestive tract.

What kind of milk
it is better?

On the label of industrial milk, you can find the inscriptions “whole” and “normalized”. Not all consumers know what they mean. Whole milk is a product of natural fat content, which ranges from 2.8 to 5%. And "normalized" milk can be made from several types of milk of different fat content: most often it is a combination of skimmed and full fat milk, brought to standard fat content - 1%, 2.5% or 3.2%.

The technology for the production of dairy products includes the mandatory processing of milk in a high temperature regime. This is necessary in order to disinfect the milk and provide it with a longer shelf life. The result is:

• pasteurized milk. It can be stored up to 15 days.
• practically sterile milk. The shelf life of such a product is 6-9 months.

What kind of milk
buy for
yogurt?

If you love homemade yogurt enriched with live bacteria and make it with store-bought milk, buy unfiltered pasteurized yogurt. In terms of its composition and quality characteristics, it is closest to raw milk. And remember: yogurt will not work from sterilized and ultra-pasteurized milk. Such milk does not sour!

Only a deaf person has never heard of antibiotics in milk today. This topic is being actively discussed by the media, the best experts are invited to comment: people want to know if there can really be antibiotics in milk, and what can it threaten them with?

Indeed, the world community has cause for concern. In the treatment of cattle, antibiotics are often used, but when the animal is sick, the regulatory documentation prescribes that the cattle be kept in quarantine. The latter should be maintained for some time after recovery - until the antibiotics are removed from the animal's body naturally. However, not all manufacturers adhere to the necessary safety conditions! And then laboratory tests find antibiotic substances in the dairy product. But, fortunately, these occurrences are rare.

Expert comment

Antibiotics are substances of natural or semi-synthetic origin that inhibit the growth of living cells. Simultaneously with the treatment of people with inflammatory diseases, animals are also given antibiotics. The milk of a cow that has been given antibiotics should be quarantined, but due to economic disadvantage, producers often do not do this, but put the milk into production.

It is impossible for buyers to determine whether there are antibiotics in milk without laboratory tests. By themselves, these substances are not harmful to the human body, but their accumulation can lead to the inactivity of similar antibiotics. That is, a person uses similar antibiotics, and they do not work.

How to recognize milk with antibiotics? You can leave pure milk in a glass for 4-5 hours with the addition of sour cream. Natural milk will turn into yogurt, and yogurt will not work from milk with antibiotics. Antibiotics cannot be neutralized. If you have found that your milk contains antibiotics, then you should refuse these products.

If pasteurized milk does not turn sour, in most cases this indicates the content of antibiotic substances in it. But don't blame the manufacturer if you're dealing with pasteurized filtered milk! Manufacturers seal this product using nitrogen. Therefore, at the end of the expiration date, milk does not turn sour, but becomes “carbonated”.

It is impossible to determine the quality of milk "by eye", so consumers have to trust their taste and personal feeling. Many do not believe in the benefits of milk with a long shelf life, believing that everything that is stored for more than two weeks is “solid chemistry”. In fact, the expiration date and the "naturalness" of milk are not synonymous. Manufacturers have many ways to extend the shelf life of the drink, while the feedstock can be anything.

Moreover, it is even more profitable for the manufacturer to produce low-quality milk with a short shelf life, people buy up such a product faster, - says Olga Soklova, researcher, expert of Roskontrol. So don't rely solely on this marker! Compliance of products with GOST and the availability of evidence of quality and safety - these are the markers that indicate milk that is good for health!

Roskontrol experts conducted a study of pasteurized milk of 16 well-known brands. The main goal was to find out if there is counterfeit on the shelves - milk with potentially dangerous additives (starch, chalk, soda and soap). Among other criteria for assessing the quality of the product, it was taken into account whether vegetable fats are used in the manufacture, and does the milk comply with GOST standards? According to the results of the study, the products of the Prostokvashino, Amka, Molochnaya Rechka, Our Farm, Yasny Lug, Vologda, Lianozovskoye, and Bolshaya Mug brands turned out to be the best.

Be healthy! Drink quality food!

According to recent studies, on average, each Russian consumes only 240 kg of dairy products per year. This is clearly not enough from a physiological point of view. The consumption rate is about 380 kg.

Drinking milk per capita in Russia accounts for about 30 liters, while in the EU countries - from 80 to 130 liters. The average consumption of fermented milk drinks (kefir and others) in Russia is about 16 liters per person per year, which is 2-2.5 times less than in developed countries. Cheese Russians consume about 7 kg per year, while in Germany, Greece, France, Switzerland - more than 20 kg. Hence the main recommendation of Russian nutritionists is to drink more milk and fermented milk drinks, eat more cottage cheese and cheese.

In this article, our experts from the dairy industry told you why milk is so useful and how to choose the right one in the store.

Milk composition

Milk has a complex composition, which depends on many factors: the physiological state of the animal, breed, diet, season. The milk of animals of the same species (for example, cows) may have different values ​​in different animals.

In general, the composition of milk is quite complex. The product contains more than a hundred organic (proteins, fats, carbohydrates, enzymes, vitamins) and inorganic (water, mineral salts, gases) substances.

Milk proteins are the most valuable component of milk. They are more complete than the proteins of meat and fish, and are digested faster. Protein is essential for the formation of new cells in the human body. Milk proteins are composed of three components: casein, albumin and globulin, which are dissolved in raw milk.

All milk proteins belong to the group of complete ones, i.e. those that contain all 20 amino acids. Among them are 8 essential amino acids that cannot be synthesized in the human body and must be supplied with food. The absence of at least one of them entails metabolic disorders. Among the essential amino acids, three are especially important: methionine, lysine and tryptophan.

Lactose is milk sugar. It is a stimulant of the nervous system and a prophylactic agent for cardiovascular diseases.

Despite the use of lactose for medicinal purposes, in many people lactose is not absorbed and causes disturbances in the digestive system. These people lack or produce insufficient amounts of the enzyme lactase. The purpose of lactase is to break down lactose into its parts, glucose and galactose, which must then be adsorbed by the small intestine. With insufficient lactase function, lactose remains in the intestine in its original form, binds water and causes further digestive disorders.

As geneticists found out, humanity did not immediately learn to benefit from such a unique product as milk. Milk tolerance appeared only with the spread of the lactose tolerance gene. It is known that this gene originated in Northern Europe around 5000 BC. e., where it currently has the highest frequency. The good tolerance of milk sugar has given carriers of this gene an advantage in the fight for survival and allowed them to spread widely.

Violation of lactase synthesis is the cause of congenital milk intolerance in newborns. In some adults, lactase activity may decrease, and then dairy products will also be poorly digested. The reason for this is a disease of the digestive tract or prolonged abstinence from drinking milk. But these changes are not associated with age, but with the characteristics of the digestive system of an individual.

Milk fat is a rich source of energy for the body. Fat is easily digestible. It is found in milk in the form of tiny fat globules. Milk fat is the most complete: it contains all currently known fatty acids, including essential ones, which are not synthesized by the body, but must be supplied with food. Milk fat is rich in vitamins A, D, E and K, which are almost absent in other animal fats.

Minerals - salts of calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, iron, citric, phosphoric, hydrochloric and other acids. They are found in milk in an easily digestible form. Milk contains trace elements in small amounts: cobalt, copper, zinc, manganese, fluorine, bromine, iodine, arsenic, silicon, boron, vanadium, etc. Trace elements are necessary to restore blood, lymph, gastric and intestinal juice, sweat, saliva, tears etc. Without their participation, the activity of such important endocrine glands as the thyroid, genital, and others would be impossible.

Vitamins. Milk contains fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) and water-soluble vitamins (B groups and ascorbic acid). Currently, over 30 vitamins are known to be found in milk. However, it is a significant source of only three of them:

• Vitamin A - retinol. Formed in the intestinal mucosa of animals from feed carotenes. The daily human need for vitamin A is 1 mg. Summer milk is richer in this vitamin than winter milk. Storing milk leads to a decrease in the content of vitamin A. This vitamin withstands heat well (up to 120 ° C) without air access. Destroyed by oxygen and light.
• Vitamin B1 is thiamine. The daily requirement for it is 2 mg. Decomposes in an alkaline environment.
• Vitamin B2 - riboflavin. The daily requirement is also 2 mg. Pasteurization of milk almost does not reduce the content of this vitamin.

Name of milk and fat content

The name of the milk that goes to the store for sale must indicate the degree of heat treatment (pasteurized, sterilized, ultra-pasteurized). The lower it is (the lowest temperature treatment is from 63 to 120 ° C in pasteurized), the shorter the shelf life of the product.

With which fat content to choose, each is determined independently: it depends on the preference of the consumer and the purpose of using milk.

Date of production (manufacturing) of the product and expiration date

This information is usually represented by two rows of numbers representing the day, month and year. For example: 05/11/11, production date, 05/26/11. expiration date (use before the specified date).

Pasteurized milk can be stored in a package at a temperature of about 4°C from 3 to 20 days. After opening the package, milk should be used within 24 hours.

Sterilized milk can have a shelf life of 45 days to 6-8 months.

UHT milk has a shelf life of 6 to 12 months.

NB! Don't buy products that expire the next day.

Integrity and cleanliness of packaging, placement in the store

Even slight damage to the packaging leads to spoilage of milk. Therefore, be sure to evaluate how the milk is packaged. Also, conscientious manufacturers put clearly readable information on the label and provide their phone numbers and contacts for feedback and possible complaints.

All dairy products (except for sterilized, powdered and condensed milk) should be on refrigerated shelves, and not stand on pallets in the hall.

NB! Milk purchased in the markets from private individuals, from flasks, cans or tanks, is subject to compulsory boiling.

There are many products in our stores. Lots of Snickers, fruits and even healthy (at least the manufacturer wants to assure us) products. Particular attention should be paid to the dairy department: it is here that the consumer is most likely to buy not only low-quality, but, frankly, harmful goods. Recently, Rosselkhoznadzor published a list of what is contained in store-bought milk. We present only the most unpleasant excerpts from this frightening study.

Reconstituted milk
Very often, unscrupulous manufacturers replace whole milk with reconstituted milk made with the addition of vegetable fats. So, for example, they act in the manufacture of fermented milk products. Goat milk, which is more expensive, is regenerated more often.

Hydrogenated fats
Mixtures of various oils, hydrogenated fats - you can find all this in regular store-bought milk. Generally speaking, the Ministry of Health recommends limiting the presence of these fats in the diet, as they contain a high concentration of trans fatty acids. Few manufacturers follow these guidelines.

chalk
Most often, ordinary chalk is added to sour cream and cottage cheese. It is not harmful - but tell me, who likes to eat chalk? Pay attention to the texture of the curd. Too crumbly, tasteless product will mean additives.

Sour cream
It's even easier here. Do not want to use a bunch of additives - do not buy store-bought sour cream. Here you will surely stumble upon a product diluted with water, kefir, low-fat cottage cheese. Flavor additives? The manufacturer prefers not to save on them.

Starch
Starch can be safely called the basis of the fat of unscrupulous dairy producers. It is added everywhere. Sour cream and butter, cottage cheese, even inexpensive kefir - everything is better with starch.

Antibiotics
Some manufacturers add antibiotics to milk. So they save on sterilization. But the Ministry of Health directly prohibits doing this: the abundance of antibiotics reduces human immunity.