Full cream milk powder

Originally, full cream milk solids were used but now where possible skim milk solids are substituted. A few products are still made from full cream milk solids but this is now rare. In some cases butter or butter oil is added to replace the fat that has been removed from the skim milk. In other cases the fat content of the milk is replaced with vegetable fat. It might appear curious that whole milk is effectively reconstituted from skim milk and butter but there are good reasons. Skim milk powder keeps better than full cream milk powder. Using skim milk and butter can under certain conditions be economically advantageous. 

The process for spray-drying of conventional skim and full-cream milk powders is routine in the dairy industry. However, there is still research on the drying of specialized and newer dairy powders (Kelly, 2006). 

Sample 1 Lactose Sample 2 Skimmed milk powder Sample 3 Full cream milk powder Sample 4 Whey powder Sample 5 Calcium caseinate... 

Skimmed milk powder Full cream milk powder Whey powder Calcium caseinate... 

After Loders and Nucoline Limited, UK. bCP 22/24 etc = cocoa powder 22/24% fat. cFCMP = full cream milk powder, assumed 25% fat. dSMP = skimmed milk powder. 

Full cream milk powder is subject to oxidation with off-flavour development. It has traditionally been shipped in bulk sacks or fibre drums without an oxygen barrier. Recent interest in use of oxygen barrier materials may well lead the way to use of more protective systems. 

Full-cream milk powder has traditionally been packaged in tinplate cans evacuated before closure. The oxygen content of the headspace can increase to 5% over the first week of storage due to release of trapped air. Oxygen concentrations such as these can severely limit the shelf-life (Abbott et al., 1961). Milk powder is given heat treatment on spray-drying in order to increase the thiol concentration in the casein to provide the natural antioxidant. Heat treatment increases the chance of forming cooked milk flavour in the reconstituted product. 

FIGURE 20.3 Typical NIR reflectance spectra of skim milk powder, buttermilk powder, and full cream milk powder. 

Either skim or full cream milk is essential although milk powder can be used as a cheaper substitute. 

The milk powder was obtained from a mixture of a full cream milk (125 kg) containing a moderate level of PCBs, a full cream milk (190 kg) with very low levels of PCBs and a skimmed milk (140 kg), also with very low levels of PCBs. All the milk was obtained from mid-southern Germany. The mixed milk was heat-treated at 85 C for 30-60 seconds in a plate heat exchanger and then condensed at 45-62 C to 38% dry mass in a double effect evaporator. The condensed milk was spray dried at 170-195 C in a pilot dryer with concurrent flow. Ten batches of 3-4 kg powder were sealed into polyethylene (PE) bags. 

Riickold et al., 2000). This leads to greater or smaller discrepancies between the "official" results for moisture and the water content, depending essentially on the lactose content of the product. For the typical spray-dried milk such as full cream or skimmed milk powder these discrepancies are normally small as the lactose is in most cases amorphous. 

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