The consumption of dairy products, made from the milk of cows, sheep, goats and buffalo, among other mammalian species, is almost as old as human civilization, with evidence of these products stretching back many millenia. The production of different kinds of dairy products originated as different ways to preserve the valuable nutritional goodness of milk components (lactose, fat, protein, vitamins and minerals) and make the milk safe for consumption, using basic principles like fermentation, heating, separation, dehydration, acidification, smoking and salting, which are the keys to producing products like cheese, butter and yogurt.
Many dairy products today are still produced using the same basic principles, and in this book an introduction to the origins, constituents and properties of milk is given, alongside an outline of the ways in which dairy products are made including the development of advanced products like infant formula and formulated nutritional products.
The text introduces, at an introductory level, the chemistry and microbiology of milk, as well as the principles of the main processes used like spray-drying, fermentation and pasteurization, to underpin understanding of how the properties of the main dairy products emerge. The book, which finishes with a discussion of the challenges and threats facing dairy today, is designed to be accessible to a wide range of non-specialist readers who may have an interest in milk and dairy products and want to learn more about this fascinating and ancient branch of the science of food.
Alan Kelly is a Professor in the School of Food and Nutritional Sciences at University College Cork in Ireland. He teaches courses in the science and technology of dairy product and the more general area of food processing and preservation and new food product development, and leads an active research group on the chemistry and processing of milk and dairy products. He has published over 300 research papers, review articles and book chapters, and several books. He has a long-standing interest in scientific communication, on which he regularly delivers workshops.
Patrick Fox is Emeritus Professor of Food Chemistry at University College Cork, where he was Professor of Food Chemistry for almost 30 years until his retirement in 1997. His research on the chemistry and biochemistry of cheese manufacture and ripening, heat-induced changes in milk, properties of milk proteins and the significance of enzymes in the dairy industry is internationally renowned (leading to multiple awards from bodies in the UK, ES and Finland), and he is the author or co-author of around 600 research papers, as well as authoring 2 textbooks and co-editing 30 others.
Tim Cogan has a Master's degree in Dairy Microbiology from University College, Cork, Ireland and a PhD in Food Microbiology from North Carolina State University, USA. He spent his working life researching the microbiology and biochemistry of cheese, lactic butter and the starter cultures used to make these products in the Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc in the Irish language) in Fermoy, Ireland as well as lecturing students part-time on aspects of these products. He is the author or co-author of over 100 papers in these areas of Dairy Microbiology
