Fermented dairy products

All the milk products that we love to consume, let it be sweets or ice creams, fall under the category of dairy products. We do enjoy the taste of dairy products but we don’t know the processing of those dairy products. The most common process used to produce these dairy products is fermentation. Now, this makes one excited to know exactly what fermented dairy products and milk and dairy products are.

What are dairy products?

A product which is to be called a dairy product has to contain or be made of milk. Cow’s milk is by large the most commonly consumed milk all over the world. In India, the milk consumption is mainly from cows and buffalos, although goat’s and camel’s milk are also consumed in other rural parts of India. Although milk is liquid and often said to be consumed as a drink it also contains 12-13% of total solids. Milk is usually highly rich in fats. Therefore, milk products are always high in demand due to their high nutritional value. Dairy products have a variety of food products that are made from milk such as curd, cheese, butter, ice cream, yogurt, condensed or dried milk.

What is fermentation?

Fermentation in simple words is the process that is metabolic and that produces several chemical changes in the organic substrates with the help of the action of enzymes. It converts carbohydrates(starch or sugar) into acid or alcohol.it is an anaerobic process that means it is capable of releasing energy from glucose even when oxygen is absent.

There are three major fermentation processes:

1. Lactic acid fermentation

2. Ethanol/alcohol fermentation

3. Acetic acid fermentation

Lactic acid fermentation is widely used in the fermentation of dairy products such as yogurt or a combination of lactic acid fermentation and yeast fermentation is used to produce products like Kefir.

Fermented dairy products

A large number of food products are produced by the process of fermentation all over the globe. Initially, scientists noted that the natural growth of several microorganisms on food such as cereals has improvised the nutritional value of the food. Later a great emphasis was given to improving the quality of the food by the process of fermentation and microbes were isolated to improve the strains.

Some typical examples of fermented dairy products are

1. Cheese- it is the most popular fermented dairy product all over the world and it uses almost a total of one-third of the total milk produced in the United States of America. The hard and soft cheese is produced by the culturing of milk .Some kinds of cheese are possible to produce by just straining out the moisture from yogurt or sour cream.

2. Sour cream- the process to make it is quite simple as letting the cream sour on its own. Yet another more effective method is used nowadays which is the usage of the bacteria that produce lactic acid i.e., Streptococcus lactis.

3. Kefir yogurt- is a drink that is produced by fermented milk. It has a mild flavour, tangy, and is naturally fizzy.it is popular as Kefir. It is produced by the combination of the kefir grains and milk in a ferment. Several bacterial strains are available in kefir grains namely acetobacter, Streptococcus, and Lactobacillus.

Advantages of fermented dairy products

There are various advantages of fermented dairy products as

• They are far better in taste

• It eliminates the undesired flavour

• The nutritional value of the food product is enhanced

• The texture of the food is also improved

• The fermented dairy products reduce the cooking time required

• The overall digestibility of the food is increased

• These food products act as valuable supplements

List of fermented dairy products

• Yogurt

• Sour cream

• Cultured buttermilk

• Kefir

• Acidophilus milk 

• Cheese

• Shrikhand

• Paneer

• Sweet curd

• Koumiss

• Curd

• Leben

• Bulgarian buttermilk 

• Lassi

Conclusion

The topic of fermented dairy products has looked into what are dairy products and what are fermented dairy products. Moreover, it has also looked into the advantages of fermented dairy products, in great detail. The various examples of fermented dairy products have been discussed under the topic. The FAQs section attempts to address the most probable queries that might arise. The FAQs section provides additional information which will aid a better understanding of the topic.