Pasteurized milk is considered to be healthier and more nutritious than sterilized or UHT milk. Of course, pasteurized milk is inferior in quality to fresh steamed milk, but for city dwellers it is the best option. In the process of pasteurization, milk is heated to a temperature of 60–70 ° C, and this allows you to preserve not only vitamins and nutrients, but also a significant part of the necessary microorganisms.
Undoubtedly, nothing beats the village cow's milk, but very few city dwellers have the opportunity to purchase it anywhere. Basically, they have to choose from three options: pasteurized milk, UHT or sterilized.
Both pasteurization and sterilization are designed to neutralize pathogenic bacteria and microorganisms in milk. To accomplish this, milk is subjected to prolonged heat treatment. Whether it is sterilized, pasteurized or ultra-pasteurized depends on how long the exposure to temperature is and what its level.
Sterilization of milk takes place at a temperature of 120 to 150 ° C for half an hour. Such a strong effect kills all microorganisms, both harmful and beneficial. Therefore, milk processed in this way, although it is stored for the longest time, has the least usefulness and nutritional value.
During ultra-pasteurization, milk is processed at 135 ° C for 4-5 seconds, and then slowly cooled to 4-5 degrees. Such milk can be stored for about 2 months, and its useful properties are only slightly lower than that of pasteurized milk.
The pasteurization method was invented in the 19th century by Louis Pasteur, which is why it got this name.
During pasteurization, milk is processed for 30 minutes at a temperature of 65 ° C or 15-30 seconds at a temperature of 75 ° C. This type of processing kills pathogenic bacteria and microorganisms, but valuable and important components (milk protein, milk sugar, enzymes) are preserved. Also, the taste remains unchanged. Therefore, pasteurized milk is stored for a relatively short time, no more than 36 hours from the moment of pasteurization.
Pasteurized milk contains various vitamins and minerals. For example: vitamins B2, B3, B12, H, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, cobalt, molybdenum, iodine.
By the content of the components in the composition, such types of pasteurized milk are distinguished as: high fat, skim, normalized, protein, baked, fortified.
High fat milk is distinguished by the largest amount of milk fat in the composition - from 3, 2 to 6%. This is achieved through the addition of cream.
Skim milk is obtained after processing standardized milk. Its cream content is minimal, and the fat content is less than 0.05%.
In normalized milk, the amount of milk fat is 3.2%.
Protein milk contains a little milk fat (only 1-2%), but a lot of protein (5.5%), sugar and other components. As a rule, such milk is recommended for those who do a lot of sports and strive for an ideal body, as well as for people suffering from protein deficiency.
Baked milk is made from pasteurized milk, which is placed in a sealed container and left to simmer at a temperature of 95 ° C. This process takes 3-4 hours. Such milk has a high milk fat content.
Fortified milk is distinguished by the presence of vitamin C in the composition.
The energy value of pasteurized milk of 1.5% fat is 45 kcal, and at 2.5% fat - 54 kcal.
