Milk fat spreads

Other low-calorie spreads containing about 50% moisture and 40% milk fat have been developed in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and Sweden. 

De Man (1983) has reviewed this property of fats. Consistency is defined as (1) an ill-defined and subjectively assessable characteristic of a material that depends on the complex stress-flow relation or as (2) the property by which a material resists change of shape. Spreadabil-ity, a term used in relation to consistency, is the force required to spread the fat with a knife. The definition is similar to that for hardness the resistance of the surface of a body to deformation. The most widely used simple compression test in North America is the cone penetrometer method (AOCS Method Cc 16-60, 1960). More sophisticated rheological procedures are also available. Efforts have been made to calibrate instrumental tests with sensory response. With the cone penetrometer method, penetration depth is used as a measure of firmness. Hayakawa and De Man (1982) studied the hardness of fractions obtained by crystallization of milk fat. Hardness values obtained with a constant speed penetrometer reflected trends in their TG composition and solid fat content. 

Emulsions play an important role in the formulation of foods, that is, o/w emulsions are used for preparation of dressings, artificial milks, cream liqueurs, and w/o emulsions are used in the production of margarines and low-fat spreads. 

In this context, the Morinaga Milk Industry (Japan) developed and commercialized a very low fat spread using membrane emulsification technology [59, 60]. The advantages in the production of low-fat spreads made the process one of the first... 

Figure 7.1. Solid fat content (SFC) of milk fat as a function of temperature. The box indicates the temperature region (i.e., 11-20°C) in which SFC ranges from 20 to 40% and good spread-ability is expected.

Figure 7.11. Milk fat hardness (kg/m) versus solid fat content (%) (A) and butter spread-ability versus yield stress value (B) (adapted from Mortensen and Danmark, 1982).

Flavor preparations typical of particular varieties of cheese can be produced with the aid of lipases of appropriate specificities (Kilara, 1985). Such flavors are used in processed cheeses, dips and spreads (Jolly and Kosikowski, 1975b). Controlled lipolysis of milk fat is also used to produce creamy and buttery flavors for bakery and cereal products, confectionery (milk chocolate, fudge), coffee whiteners, and other imitation dairy products (Arnold et al., 1975 Fox, 1980 Kilara, 1985). 

Use of added ascorbic acid delayed flavor development in packaged milk concentrates (649), in milk fat (650), in goat milk curd (651), in butter from buffalo milk (652), in y-irradiated skim-milk powder (653), in low-fat dairy spreads (654), and in khoa products (655). Experience in yogurt, cheese, and ice cream has been previously reviewed (311,312). 

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