Dairy product

Dairy products are generally defined as foodstuffs produced from milk. A production plant for such processing is called a dairy. Raw milk for processing generally comes from cows, but occasionally from other mammals such as goats, sheep, water buffalo, yaks, or horses.

Types of dairy products

There are more than 30 main products made from milk with a number of sub-products in each category. Dairy products include:

Milk, after optional homogenization, pasteurization, in several grades after standardization of the fat level
- Cream, the fat skimmed off the top of milk or separated by machine-centrifuges
  - Sour cream, cream that has been fermented by the bacteria Streptococcus lactis and Leuconostoc citrovorum
  - Crème fraîche, slightly fermented cream
- Cultured buttermilk, fermented concentrated (water removed) milk using the same bacteria as sour cream
- Milk powder (or powdered milk), produced by removing the water from milk
  - Whole milk & buttermilk
  - Skim milk
  - Cream
  - High milk-fat & nutritional powders (for infant formulas)
  - Cultured and confectionery powders
- Condensed milk, milk which has been concentrated by evaporation, often with sugar added for longer life in an opened can
- Evaporated milk, (less concentrated than condensed) milk without added sugar
- Khoa
- Infant formula, dried milk powder with specific additives for feeding human infants

Butter, mostly milk fat, produced by churning cream
- Buttermilk, the liquid left over after producing butter from cream, often dried as livestock food
- Ghee, clarified butter, by gentle heating of butter and removal of the solid matter
- Anhydrous milkfat

Cheese, produced by coagulating milk, separating from whey and letting it ripen, generally with bacteria and sometimes also with certain molds
- Curds, the soft curdled part of milk (or skim milk) used to make cheese (or casein)
- Whey, the liquid drained from curds and used for further processing or as a livestock food
- Cottage cheese
- Cream cheese, produced by the addition of cream to milk and then curdled to form a rich curd or cheese made from skim milk with cream added to the curd
- Fromage frais

Casein
- Caseinates
- Milk protein concentrates and isonates
- Whey protein concentrates and isonates
- Hydrolysates
- Mineral concentrates

Yogurt, milk fermented by Streptococcus salivarius ssp. thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus sometimes with additional bacteria, such as Lactobacillus acidophilus
- Ayran
- Lassi

Gelato, slowly frozen milk and water

Ice cream, slowly frozen cream and emulsifying additives
- Ice milk
- Frozen custard
- Frozen yogurt, yogurt with emulsifiers that is frozen

Other

Got Milk? is an international organization supporting dairy products, especially milk.

History

Most dairy products were developed in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; the people of these continents have traditionally been the most active in terms of exploiting cattle as a primary food source. Some dairy products originate from other countries, like Indian ghee. A small number of non-cow dairy products exist like Italian water buffalo mozzarella cheese, yak butter in Tibet or the fermented horse milk drink called airag in the Mongolian cuisine.

Dairy products were exported to the rest of the world during the 16th and 17th centuries. They are now universally popular, despite the fact that some people cannot consume them in adulthood because of lactose intolerance.

Criticism

Vegans and some vegetarians avoid dairy products due to well documented ethical, physiological, environmental, political, and religious considerations, among others, though most people may not take up every issue.

Eggs as dairy?

Eggs and milk products are in some circumstances grouped together under the heading of dairy, probably because fresh eggs were often sold by milkmen. For example, the Open Directory Project at one point listed cooking eggs as a subcategory of cooking dairy products. However, dictionary definitions of "dairy" are limited to milk products and, as a result, will always exclude eggs and egg products.

Beef as dairy?

Since dairy products are generally defined as foodstuffs produced from milk, rather than foodstuffs produced from a cow, beef is not considered a dairy product. Beef is not derived from milk. Dairy products include food made from (or consisting of) the milk of any animal, so if beef were to be considered a dairy product, any other meat from a milk-producing animal (e.g. goat) would be considered dairy as well.

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