Colostrum is the initial milk secreted by mammals following parturition, the composition and physicochemical properties of which are highly dynamic and variable. The composition and physicochemical properties of colostrum during the initial postpartum period has not been systematically reviewed for many years, although the topic remains of interest both to milk producers and processors. In this article, the current understanding of the composition of colostrum, i.e. carbohydrates, proteins, growth factors, enzymes, enzyme inhibitors, nucleotides and nucleosides, cytokines, fats, vitamins and minerals, is reviewed. In addition, the physicochemical properties, i.e. pH and buffering capacity, colour, density and specific gravity, osmotic pressure, somatic cell count, properties of casein micelles, ethanol stability and rennet coagulation properties are discussed, as well as the effects of heat-treating colostrum.

Effects of high pressure (HP) on average casein micelle size and denaturation of α-lactalbumin (α-la) and β-lactoglobulin (β-lg) in raw skim bovine milk were studied over a range of conditions. Micelle size was not influenced by treatment at pressures <200 MPa, but treatment at 250 MPa increased micelle size by ∼25%, while treatment at [ges ]300 MPa irreversibly reduced it to ∼50% of that in untreated milk. The increase in micelle size after treatment at 250 MPa was greater with increasing treatment time and temperature and milk pH. Treatment times [ges ]2 min at 400 MPa resulted in similar levels of micelle disruption, but increasing milk pH to 7·0 partially stabilised micelles against HP-induced disruption. Denaturation of α-la did not occur [les ]400 MPa, whereas β-lg was denatured at pressures >100 MPa. Denaturation of α-la and β-lg increased with increasing pressure, treatment time and temperature and milk pH. The majority of denatured β-lg was apparently associated with casein micelles. These effects of HP on casein micelles and whey proteins in milk may have significant implications for properties of products made from HP-treated milk.

Although widely adopted by the chemical and pharmaceutical industries in recent years, little published data is available regarding possible applications of high pressure homogenisation for dairy products. The objective of this work was to compare the effects of conventional (18 MPa, two-stage) and single or two-stage high pressure homogenisation (HPH) at 50–200 MPa on some properties of raw whole bovine milk (∼4% fat). Fat globule size decreased as HPH pressure increased and, under certain conditions of temperature and pressure, HPH yielded significantly smaller fat globules than conventional homogenisation. Fat globule size was also affected by milk inlet temperature. The pH of all homogenised milk samples decreased during 24 h refrigerated storage. Total bacterial counts of milk were decreased significantly (P<0·05) for milk samples HPH-treated at 150 or 200 MPa. Whiteness and rennet coagulation properties of milk were unaffected or enhanced, respectively, as homogenisation pressure was increased. Average casein micelle size decreased slightly when skim milk was homogenised at 200 MPa. Thus, HPH treatment has several, potentially significant, effects on milk properties.

Studies of the potential of high pressure homogenisation (HPH) for the combined pasteurisation/ homogenisation of raw bovine milk were undertaken. Raw milk was preheated to 45 8C and HPH-treated at 150, 200 or 250 MPa; milk outlet temperature at these pressures were 67, 76 . 8 and 83 . 6 8C, respectively, with a holding time of y20 s. Raw and commercially pasteurized and homogenized (CPH) milk samples were analysed as controls. Fat globules in HPH samples were approximately half the size of those in CPH samples, although differences were not significant (P >0 . 05). b-Lactoglobulin was denatured at pressures o150 MPa, although little denaturation of a-lactalbumin was observed. Numbers of psychrotrophic bacteria in raw milk were reduced by 2 . 73 log cycles by HPH at 150 MPa and were uncountable following HPH at 200 or 250 MPa. Mesophilic bacterial counts were reduced by 1 . 30, 1 . 83 and 3 . 06 log cycles by HPH at 150, 200 or 250 MPa, respectively. No viable Staphylococcus aureus nor coliform cells remained in any HPH milk samples. HPH did not affect the colour of milk and HPH samples did not cream during refrigerated storage. The activities of plasmin, alkaline phosphatase and lactoperoxidase in milk were all greatly reduced by HPH. Pseudomonas fluorescens, inoculated into milk (y10 6 cfu/ml), was reduced to undetectable levels by HPH at 200 MPa (milk inlet temperature, y10 8C); however, Ps. fluorescens proteinase was quite resistant to HPH under such conditions. Overall, owing to the significant increase in temperature and the possibility of varying the holding time, there may be potential applications for HPH as a novel liquid milk processing technique, combining many advantages of conventional homogenization and pasteurization of milk in a single process.

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High-pressure processing (HPP) is a nonthermal process capable of inactivating and eliminating pathogenic and food spoilage microorganisms. This novel technology has enormous potential in the food industry, controlling food spoilage, improving food safety and extending product shelf life while retaining the characteristics of fresh, preservative-free, minimally processed foods. As with other food processing methods, such as thermal processing, HPP has somewhat limited applications as it cannot be universally applied to all food types, such as some dairy and animal products and shelf-stable low-acid foods. Herein, we discuss the effects of high-pressure processing on microbial food safety and, to a lesser degree, food quality.

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Human milk is the ideal nutrition source for healthy infants during the first six months of life and a detailed characterisation of the composition of milk from mothers that deliver prematurely (<37 weeks gestation), and of how human milk changes during lactation, would benefit our understanding of the nutritional requirements of premature infants. Individual milk samples from mothers delivering prematurely and at term were collected. The human milk metabolome, established by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, was influenced by gestational and lactation age. Metabolite profiling identified that levels of valine, leucine, betaine, and creatinine were increased in colostrum from term mothers compared with mature milk, while those of glutamate, caprylate, and caprate were increased in mature term milk compared with colostrum. Levels of oligosaccharides, citrate, and creatinine were increased in pre-term colostrum, while those of caprylate, caprate, valine, leucine, glutamate, and pantothenate increased with time postpartum. There were differences between pre-term and full-term milk in the levels of carnitine, caprylate, caprate, pantothenate, urea, lactose, oligosaccharides, citrate, phosphocholine, choline, and formate. These findings suggest that the metabolome of pre-term milk changes within 5–7 weeks postpartum to resemble that of term milk, independent of time of gestation at pre-mature delivery.