Dairy products are generally defined as food produced from the milk of mammals (the Food Standards Agency of the United Kingdom defines dairy as "foodstuffs made from mammalian milk").^[1] They are usually high energy-yielding food products. A production plant for the processing of milk is called a dairy or a dairy factory. Apart from breastfed infants, the human consumption of dairy products is sourced primarily from the milk of cows, yet goats, sheep, yaks, camels, and other mammals are other sources of dairy products consumed by humans. Dairy products are commonly found in European, Middle Eastern and Indian cuisine, whereas they are almost unknown in East Asian cuisine.

Milk products and production relationships

Dairy farm

Types of dairy products[link]

A selection of three common dairy products made by a South African dairy company: a box of full cream, long life milk, a bottle of strawberry drinking yogurt, and a carton of passion fruit yogurt

• Milk after optional homogenization, pasteurization, in several grades after standardization of the fat level, and possible addition of bacteria Streptococcus lactis and Leuconostoc citrovorum
  • Crème fraîche, slightly fermented cream
    • Clotted cream, thick, spoonable cream made by heating
    • Smetana, Central and Eastern European variety of sour cream
  • Cultured milk resembling buttermilk, but uses different yeast and bacterial cultures
  • Kumis/Airag, slightly fermented mares' milk popular in Central Asia
  • Powdered milk (or milk powder), produced by removing the water from (usually skim) milk
    • Whole milk products
    • Buttermilk products
    • Skim milk
    • Whey products
    • Ice cream
    • High milk-fat and nutritional products (for infant formulas)
    • Cultured and confectionery products
  • Condensed milk, milk which has been concentrated by evaporation, with sugar added for reduced process time and longer life in an opened can
  • Khava, milk which has been completely concentrated by evaporation, used in Indian sweets (gulab jamun, pedha and many more)
  • Evaporated milk, (less concentrated than condensed) milk without added sugar
  • Ricotta cheese, acidified whey, reduced in volume, known in Indian cuisine as khoa
  • Infant formula, dried milk powder with specific additives for feeding human infants
  • Baked milk, a variety of boiled milk that has been particularly popular in Russia
• Butter, mostly milk fat, produced by churning cream
  • Buttermilk, the liquid left over after producing butter from cream, often dried as livestock feed
  • Ghee, clarified butter, by gentle heating of butter and removal of the solid matter
  • Smen, a fermented, clarified butter used in Moroccan cooking
  • Anhydrous milkfat (clarified butter)
• 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
  • Paneer
  • Whey, the liquid drained from curds and used for further processing or as a livestock feed
  • Cottage cheese
  • Quark
  • Cream cheese, produced by the addition of cream to milk and then curdled to form a rich curd or cheese
  • Fromage frais
• Casein
  • Caseinates, sodium or calcium salts of casein
  • Milk protein concentrates and isolates
  • Whey protein concentrates and isolates, reduced lactose whey
  • Hydrolysates, milk treated with proteolytic enzymes to alter functionality
  • Mineral concentrates, byproduct of demineralizing whey
• Yogurt, milk fermented by Streptococcus salivarius ssp. thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus sometimes with additional bacteria, such as Lactobacillus acidophilus
  • Ayran
  • Lassi
• Clabber, milk naturally fermented to a yogurt-like state
• Gelato, slowly frozen milk and water, lesser fat than ice cream
• Ice cream, slowly frozen cream, milk, flavors and emulsifying additives
  • Ice milk, low=fat version of ice cream
  • Frozen custard
  • Frozen yogurt, yogurt with emulsifiers
• Other
  • Viili
  • Kajmak
  • Filmjölk
  • Piimä
  • Vla
  • Dulce de leche
  • Skyr

Health risks of consuming dairy products[link]

Most dairy products contain large amounts of saturated fat.

Some dairy products may cause health issues for individuals who have a lactose intolerance and milk allergies. Some dairy products such as blue cheese may become contaminated with the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus during ripening, which can trigger asthma and other respiratory problems in susceptible individuals.^[2][3][4] Vegans and some other vegetarians avoid dairy products due to a variety of ethical, dietary, environmental, political, and religious concerns.

See also[link]

Agriculture and Agronomy portal

• Fermented milk products

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Dairy product

• International Dairy School
• Questions and Answers on dairy products
• MilkAcademy - Applicable information about milking equipments and dairy farming