Milk is a highly nutritious food that contains an array of macro and micro components, scientifically proven to be beneficial to human health. While the composition of milk is influenced by a variety of factors, such as genetics, health, lactation stage etc., the animal’s diet remains a key mechanism by which its nutrition and processing characteristics can be altered. Pasture feeding has been demonstrated to have a positive impact on the nutrient profile of milk, increasing the content of some beneficial nutrients such as Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, vaccenic acid, and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), while reducing the levels of Omega-6 fatty acids and palmitic acid. These resultant alterations to the nutritional profile of “Grass-Fed” milk resonate with consumers that desire healthy, “natural”, and sustainable dairy products. This review provides a comprehensive comparison of the impact that pasture and non-pasture feeding systems have on bovine milk composition from a nutritional and functional (processability) perspective, highlighting factors that will be of interest to dairy farmers, processors, and consumers.

Currently, nitrogen fertilizers are utilized to meet 48% of the total global food demand. The demand for nitrogen fertilizers is expected to grow as global populations continue to rise. The use of nitrogen fertilizers is associated with many negative environmental impacts and is a key source of greenhouse and harmful gas emissions. In recent years, urease and nitrification inhibitors have emerged as mitigation tools that are presently utilized in agriculture to prevent nitrogen losses and reduce greenhouse and harmful gas emissions that are associated with the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers. Both classes of inhibitor work by different mechanisms and have different physiochemical properties. Consequently, each class must be evaluated on its own merits. Although there are many benefits associated with the use of these inhibitors, little is known about their potential to enter the food chain, an event that may pose challenges to food safety. This phenomenon was highlighted when the nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide was found as a residual contaminant in milk products in 2013. This comprehensive review aims to discuss the uses of inhibitor technologies in agriculture and their possible impacts on dairy product safety and quality, highlighting areas of concern with regards to the introduction of these inhibitor technologies into the dairy supply chain. Furthermore, this review discusses the benefits and challenges of inhibitor usage with a focus on EU regulations, as well as associated health concerns, chemical behavior, and analytical detection methods for these compounds within milk and environmental matrices.

The characteristic aroma, flavour and texture of cheese develop during ripening of the cheese curd through the action of numerous enzymes derived from the cheese milk, the coagulant, starter and non-starter bacteria. Ripening is a slow and consequently an expensive process that is not fully predictable or controllable. Consequently, there are economic and possibly technological incentives to accelerate ripening. The principal methods by which this may be achieved are: an elevated ripening temperature, modified starters, exogenous enzymes and cheese slurries. The advantages, limitations, technical feasibility and commercial potential of these methods are discussed and compared.

This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

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International audienceIntroduction of more energy efficient processing practices, such as increasing the initial solids content from which powder is manufactured, is of interest to the infant formula industry. This study evaluated the use of an inline rotor-stator mixer followed by direct steam injection to disperse and heat-treat (110 °C, 3 s) high-solids (60% w/w) formulations, for the production of powdered infant milk formula. As a control, 30% w/w infant milk formulations were subjected to a typical process, i.e. heat treatment in a tubular heat exchanger, valve-type homogenisation, evaporation (to 55% w/w solids content) and spray drying. Both formulations were dried using a three-stage dryer with two-fluid nozzle atomisation at inlet and outlet temperatures of 187 °C and 85 °C, respectively. Formulations subjected to the steam injection process had significantly (P < 0.05) lower viscosity compared to control formulations at equivalent solids contents (55% w/w). This was partly attributed to lower levels of whey protein denaturation (76.2 ± 0.09%) compared to indirect heat treatment in the control process (87.0 ± 0.5%) as measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. Prior to spray drying, volume mean particle size of both processes was not significantly different (P > 0.05), 2.04 ± 0.22 and 1.82 ± 0.04 μm for the control and high-solids steam injection processes, respectively. Powders produced by both processes had statistically similar (P > 0.05) surface free fat content, wettability and dispersibility. The study showed that it is possible to produce quality model infant milk formula powders from a high-solids concentrate while considerably reducing process complexity

This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.