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Chemistry of Milk Constituents

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Fundamentals of Cheese Science

Summary

Milk is a very complex fluid. It contains four principal constituents, water, lipids, proteins and lactose and perhaps 100 minor constituents, the most important of which from a cheesemaking viewpoint is calcium phosphate. The manufacture and quality of cheese depend, especially, on the properties of one of its protein groups, the caseins, and to a lesser extent on the lipids. Most (~90 %) of the water of milk is removed in the whey, which contains the soluble constituents, i.e., the whey proteins, lactose and some of the inorganic salts. Traditionally, whey was an almost worthless by-product but it is now the source of several very valuable products which are described in Chap. 22.

To better understand the cheesemaking process, the unique characteristics of the caseins, milk lipids, lactose and milk salts are described briefly in this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University College, Cork, Ireland

    Patrick F. Fox & Paul L. H. McSweeney

  2. Teagasc Food Research Centre, Fermoy, Cork, Ireland

    Timothy P. Guinee & Timothy M. Cogan

Authors
  1. Patrick F. Fox
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  2. Timothy P. Guinee
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  3. Timothy M. Cogan
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  4. Paul L. H. McSweeney
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Fox, P.F., Guinee, T.P., Cogan, T.M., McSweeney, P.L.H. (2017). Chemistry of Milk Constituents. In: Fundamentals of Cheese Science. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7681-9_4

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