All about Dairy part 1: Know your dairy products!

1. Do you remember Joris Driepinter? In the 1960s and 1970s, the drawn figure was supposed to encourage everyone to drink at least three glasses of milk a day. Joris proved the usefulness of this by performing strong feats, including lifting an elephant. Kind of like Popeye, but with milk instead of spinach.

1. In the meantime, a wide debate has arisen as to whether milk, and dairy in general, is indispensable in a healthy diet. In fact, there are those who claim that in some ways milk is bad for your health. As a counterbalance, the Dutch Dairy Agency has taken Joris Driepinter back from the stable since 2010 to convince everyone that milk is healthy.

2. In the meantime, a wide debate has arisen as to whether milk, and dairy in general, is indispensable in a healthy diet. In fact, there are those who claim that milk is in some ways bad for your health. As a counterbalance, the Dutch Dairy Agency has taken Joris Driepinter back from the stable since 2010 to convince everyone that milk is healthy.

1. In this three-part special, we are going to list all the facts about dairy.

1. In this first part we are going to take a closer look at the different dairy products, because many people do not know what exactly custard is. Or where exactly buttermilk comes from.

2. In this first part we will take a closer look at the different dairy products, because many people do not know exactly what custard is. Or where exactly buttermilk comes from.

1. Volume 2 In the second part we will look at the nutrients in the milk and in the last part we will look more specifically at the differences in some dairy products.

1. We are clearly not going to judge whether or not dairy products are healthy, but we will give you as much information as possible so that you can draw your own conclusions.

1. Let's first see how milk, the basis for all dairy products, is made.

Milk

1. The production of milk naturally starts at the base: the Cows that are in the field, or in the stable, are eating while they produce 2 buckets of milk every day. Did you know that a cow eats an average of 80 kilos of grass per day and drinks 100 liters of water to make these two buckets of milk?

2. The production of milk starts of course at the base: the Cows that are in the field, or in the stable, are eating while they produce 2 buckets of milk every day. Did you know that a cow eats an average of 80 kilos of grass per day and drinks 100 liters of water to make these two buckets of milk?

1. This same cow is milked twice a day after which the raw milk, still on the farm, is stored in cooling tanks. Once every three days, the customer comes by with a tanker to transport the milk to the manufacturer. There the milk is processed into the product that we, if all goes well, drink every day.

2. This same cow is milked twice a day after which the raw milk, still on the farm, is stored in cooling tanks. Once every three days, the customer comes by with a tanker to transport the milk to the manufacturer. There the milk is processed into the product which we, if all goes well, drink daily.

1. In the factory, the raw raw milk is processed a few times, so that it has a longer shelf life and is suitable for consumption.

Pasteurization

1. All milk that arrives at the factory is first treated with heat to kill the harmful bacteria. These are bacteria that can potentially be harmful to public health, but also bacteria that can spoil the milk. This means that the milk can be kept longer after pasteurization.

1. The milk is briefly heated to a temperature of 72 degrees Celsius. This does not kill all bacteria, but does not or hardly affect the taste and nutritional value of milk.

1. This is in contrast to sterilization, which takes place at a temperature of more than 100 degrees. The taste and nutritional value of the milk will deteriorate considerably. The milk can then be kept for an extremely long time. The pasteurization process is named after the French chemist Louis Pasteur who discovered that bacteria cannot withstand high temperatures.

1. Educational tip: Buy a carton of sterilized milk and a carton of pasteurized milk and have a tasting with the whole family. You can clearly taste the difference!

Creaming

1. The raw milk from the cow contains 3% -6% fat, depending on the season. To reduce this fat percentage for semi-skimmed and skimmed milk, the milk is centrifuged. This removes the fat, or cream, from the milk. This cream is used in a different production process for butter or whipped cream, for example.

1. According to the Commodities Act, whole milk must contain at least 3.5% fat, semi-skimmed milk at least 1.5%, and skimmed milk must contain a maximum of 0.5% fat.

Homogenize

1. Regardless of the type of milk, full / semi-skimmed or skimmed, cream always remains in the milk. Once the milk is in the package, the milk is homogenized to prevent the cream from floating to the surface. The milk is pressed through very small holes under the influence of high pressure.

1. This makes the fat globules much smaller and no longer float to the surface when the milk is standing still for a long time. All cream is therefore evenly (homogeneously) distributed over the milk. Incidentally, this milk, which is not homogenized, is not bad for health. It is only a visual treatment, because people don't like to see a glass of milk with a layer of cream floating on it.

Packaging and transport

1. After these treatments, the milk is packed in a controlled environment and transported to the store where you can buy the milk. Packaging is done in cardboard, plastic or glass. Some are more environmentally friendly than others, but that's a whole different story.

1. From this milk, which is used as a base, numerous dairy products can be made. Below is a small selection of the most popular dairy products in the Netherlands.

Yogurt

1. Yogurt is one of the milk-based products to which lactic acid bacteria are added to achieve controlled fermentation and acidification. First, the milk is heated, after which the lactic acid bacteria are added to the milk.

1. This whole remains under a constant temperature for 4-16 hours (depending on the desired result), during which the bacteria thicken and acidify the milk. Then it is cooled and the yogurt is ready.

There are two types of yoghurt:

1. Stand-on yogurt is prepared at a temperature of 45 degrees Celsius and is ready in 4-6 hours. This yogurt has a firm structure, but stirring will damage the structure and make it more liquid.

1. Stirred yogurt is made at a lower temperature. At 31-32 degrees Celsius, the fermentation is completed in 10-16 hours. This lower temperature also creates mucilaginous compounds that ensure that the yogurt is and remains firm, even after stirring. This yogurt also has a smoother texture.

1. The latter variety is the most common in the Netherlands, mainly because it is easier and faster to make. In many other countries, standing yogurt is much more common.

1. With a number of yogurts, water is extracted from the product to make it thicker, creamier and tastier. A nice Dutch example of this is Hangop. The solids content has also been increased in this way in Greek yogurt.

Custard

1. Custard is traditionally made from boiled milk with custard and sugar, or with a combination of cornstarch, eggs, sugar and vanilla. The store-bought custard is generally thickened using other, less healthy, thickening agents.

1. Although custard is a typical Dutch product, it has also been eaten in Germany for a while under the name Vla or Pudding. France also has its custard in the form of Custard. The thick version of this is the basis for the French delicacy Crème Brà »là © e.

1. Custard is always distinctly yellow, while the ingredients do not tend towards this color, except for the egg yolks. It has turned out that the users feel that custard should be yellow. So the yellow color only comes from artificial colors and has nothing to do with the ingredients.

1. Gourmet tip: Make your own vanilla custard. In part three of this dairy special you will find a simple, but good recipe. It's not much work, but with a fantastic result: You don't know what you're tasting!

Cheese

1. The Netherlands, lâ € ™ autre pays du fromage, is a large cheese country. Cheese consumption per capita of the Dutch population is more than 17 kilos per year!

1. By adding rennet and starter culture to milk, the proteins in the milk will clump together, trapping the fat and moisture. In this way so-called curd is created. This curd is pressed and immersed in salt water. The taste and quality of the cheese is determined by the duration of the ripening.

1. This can vary from 4 weeks to more than a year. To indicate this ripening period, the manufacturers have coined a number of terms:

1. To give the cheese a specific taste, herbs and / or spices such as cloves, cumin, mustard, sambal, pesto, chives or nettle are added during the production process.

Butter

1. The cream, which we have as a â € ˜by-productâ € ™ of the milk production described above, is churned. This means that the cream is whipped, causing the fat particles to stick together even more, making the cream more concentrated. After this process you are left with butter and buttermilk.

1. The buttermilk is sold as a â € by-productâ € ™ like the buttermilk we find in the supermarket. The butter is pressed further and kneaded to remove as much excess moisture as possible and to distribute the rest evenly over the butter. Finally, lactic acid bacteria are added to the butter to obtain the desired aroma. As a final product, the butter has a fat content of about 80%.

1. The color of butter depends on the season. When the cows are in the stable, the butter is paler than when the cows are in the pasture. But because the consumer likes to see the butter light yellow, the product is artificially colored.

But what exactly is in dairy?

1. In the second part of this special you can read what is in dairy and what nutritional values ​​you can derive from it.

1. Click below to read Part 2: All About Dairy Part 2: The Nutritional Value of Dairy