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The MILK and its composition |
| is a
complete food that helps us from the first moment of our life. Its composition
is complicated and interesting. The milk is a biological liquid with a
sweetish taste and a delicate smell. From the chemical-physical point
of view it is a watery mixture of many substances that can be found: -in a solution (LACTOSE, MINERAL
SALTS, WATER-SOLUBLE VITAMINS); -in a collaidal dispersion
(PROTEINS AND PHOSPHATES); -in a emulsion (FATS,
FAT-SOLUBLE VITAMINS) -in a suspension (CELL AND
MICRO-ORGANISMS) Hundred millilitres of milk
contain: 87.75% of water, 3.50% of fats, 3%
of casein, 0.50% of lactalbumin and lactoglobulin, 4.50% of lactose, 0.75% of
cinders. If we heat these hundred
millilitres, we get a 12.75% dry substance. The cinders are costituted by
mineral salts: calcium phosphate, calcium chloride, potassium, sodium,
sulphates, magnesium and iron. The phosphate ion, in particular is found
partly, combined in organic form with the casein, and partly as a calcium or
potassium mineral salt. In the milk we can also found a little carbon dioxide
and nitrogen. The milk has also "biocatalitici"
constituents such as vitamins, enzymes, micro-organisms. From the vitamins
point of view milk is the most complete and balanced, it contains both
fat-soluble (A,D,E,K) and water-soluble(B, C, PP) vitamins. It contains
hydrolitic and oxidation- reducing enzymes. Among the biological components
it has cellular elements (leucocytes) and micro-organisms(milk's ferment,
"proteolitici", "propionici", "butirrici", moulds, yeasts). The micro-organisms intervene above all in
the process of curdling and maturing of the cheese. |