The Bottom Line: Quick facts about milk!
The Full Story:
- United States and Australia are the world’s largest exporters of milk and milk products.
- Throughout the world, there are more than 6-billion consumers of milk and milk products.
- Milk is processed into a variety of dairy products such as cream, butter, yogurt, kefir, ice cream and cheese.
- Modern industrial processes use milk to produce casein, whey protein, lactose, condensed milk, powdered milk and many other food-additive and industrial products.
- In the Middle Ages, milk was called the virtuous white liquor because alcoholic beverages were more reliable than water.
- In 1863 – French chemist and biologist Louis Pasteur invented pasteurization, a method of killing harmful bacteria in beverages and food products.
- In 1884 – American Doctor Hervey Thatcher of New York City, invented the first glass milk bottle, called ‘Thatcher’s Common Sense Milk Jar’, which was sealed with a waxed paper disk. Later, in 1932, plastic-coated paper milk cartons were introduced commercially as a consequence of their invention by Victor W. Farris.
- The females of all mammal species can by definition produce milk, but cow milk dominates commercial production. It’s estimated that 85% of all milk worldwide was produced from cows.
- Aside from cattle, many kinds of livestock provide milk used by humans for dairy products. These animals include: buffalo, goat, sheep, camel, donkey, horse, reindeer and yak.