Dairy products and milk-based food ingredients - Natural Food Additives, Ingredients and Flavourings - page 418

17.3.1 Liquid milk products: market milk
Liquid milk has become a staple food in many developed countries and is most
commonly evident in the UK in supermarkets and grocery shops. Doorstep
delivery accounted for only 4.8% of total household milk consumption in
December 2010 (DairyCo 2010) and the size of the UK liquid milk market was 5
billion litres for the 52 weeks ending 28 November 2010 (DairyCo 2010), of
which some 4.7 billion litres was retail sales and 300 million litres doorstep
delivery. Of total milk sales in this period, almost 4.2 billion litres was pasteurised
milk. In many developed countries the per capita consumption of liquid milk is
signifi cantly lower than the UK, as milk solids tend to be consumed as milk
products rather than as liquid milk. Also, although pasteurised milk is the dominant
form of milk consumed in the UK, where it is used mainly to whiten tea and
coffee and lubricate cereals, in many countries, long shelf life ultra heat-treated
(UHT) or sterilised milks are preferred.

Pasteurised market milk
The ingredient in pasteurised milk is of course milk. Pasteurised milk is
manufactured with different fat contents (Table 17.4). A change to EU labelling
regulations in 2008 allowed 1% fat milk into the UK market, which the
Food Standards Agency (FSA) asserts can improve public health by reducing
saturated fat consumption (FSA 2010). Such assertions are increasingly being
challenged (Groves 2008, Sutter 2010, Taubes 2011).

Table 17.4 EU drinking milk products

Type Heat treatment

requirements

Milkfat content Notes

Raw milk Not heated above

40°C or equivalent

Whole milk
Non-standardised
whole milk

￿ ￿ ￿ ￿ ￿

Heat-treated milk Not less than 3.5% Fat has been neither

added nor removed
since milking

Whole milk
Whole standardised
milk

Heat-treated milk 3.5% Member States may

provide for an
additional category of
whole milk with a fat
content of 4.0% or
above.

Semi-skimmed milk Heat-treated milk At least 1.5% and

not more than 1.8%

Skimmed milk Heat-treated milk Not more than 0.5%

1% fat milk Heat-treated milk 1% As permitted under

EU Regulation