When buying products in a store, we cannot always be sure of their quality. Especially when it comes to dairy and fermented milk products. It has long been known that store-bought milk is of little benefit, and expired milk is even less beneficial. Many people, despite this fact, do not stop loving and preparing dishes based on it. There are basic options for assessing the quality of milk and its suitability for consumption.
How to determine the freshness of milk
Composition of bovine and goat milk has several differences, but the freshness of this product is subject to the same check. Cow's milk contains casein, unlike goat's milk, it can cause allergic reaction. For this reason, not all people are susceptible to this species product. Two types are known to contain pure protein.
In the old days, the freshness of milk was checked in the following way: housewives took an unlit match and threw it into a glass. If she hasn't drowned, the milk is fresh and ready to drink. Let's look at several ways to check product freshness.
Method number 1. Soda
Pour half a glass of milk, add 10 grams. soda, watch the reaction. The appearance of foam indicates that the product is not fresh.
Method number 2. A drop
Unlike store-bought milk, homemade milk is famous for its high fat content. Checking the indicators is quite simple. Dip a toothpick into a container of milk. Drip milk product on the nail. If the drop does not spread, the liquid can be considered fresh.
Method number 3. Boiling
Pour a small amount of milk into a heat-resistant container. Place on the stove and wait until the first bubbles appear. If the liquid begins to curdle, you can be sure that the dairy product is spoiled. Don’t forget about your own sense of smell, because this is a simple and sure way to determine the freshness of milk. It should not contain any strong odors and be uniform (without clots).
Checking the fat content of milk
To test milk for fat content, you will need any water content tests. If the product is diluted, the fat content is reduced significantly. There is another proven method.
Take two containers and fill one with milk. Pour the liquid from the first bowl into the second. Evaluate the result. If the milk is fatty, it will not leave marks on the walls of the vessel. A diluted product, on the contrary, will be smeared over the entire surface of the container, indicating the content of water or palm oil in the composition.
Assessing milk quality: important aspects
Many people who do not take store-bought milk seriously often speak negatively about the quality of the product supplied. They believe that cottage cheese, kefir, fermented baked milk and, of course, milk are prepared exclusively from powder.
An effective way to assess the quality of milk is to visually assess the shade. If the composition has yellow, this is good goat or cow milk. In this case, a snow-white or white with a blue tint indicates the participation of chemical impurities.
Unscrupulous manufacturing companies supply their products with starch (potato, corn), lime, flour or chalk. The listed components improve the aesthetic performance of the finished composition.
Identifying signs of starch
Most often, when producing skim milk, starch is added, so the product becomes thicker. To determine the presence of this substance you will need iodine. Pour a partial glass of milk, add a few drops of iodine. Observe the reaction: if the liquid is predominantly blue, the milk contains starch. Otherwise, the presence of yellowish circles indicates the absence of additives in the milk.
Detection of water in milk
Some factories and farmers, due to a weakness for money, make low-quality products. Thus, they use an annoying trick, that is, they dilute the milk with water.
Method number 1. Alcohol
This verification option is only suitable for cow's milk, because it includes casein. Mix medical (ethyl) alcohol and milk in a 2:1 ratio. You can replace alcohol with high-quality vodka. Shake the prepared mixture for one minute, then pour the contents onto a flat plate. If the milk is of high quality, flakes will form on the surface of the saucer within the first seven seconds. If there are few flakes and much more time is spent on their formation, this means that the milk contains a lot of water.
Method No. 2. Warm water
The technique is developed for any type of milk (goat, cow). Pour a glass warm water, then slowly add milk. As a result, when mixing two liquids, high-quality milk will curdle, and diluted milk will mix with water.
Check for impurities
Often store products are no different high quality. Unscrupulous manufacturers stuff milk with flavor enhancers and other impurities that can increase the shelf life of the composition. To avoid the harmful effects of milk on human body, a thorough check must be carried out.
Antibiotic Availability Assessment
For long-term storage of dairy products, antibiotics are added. It is not difficult to detect the presence of these drugs. It is enough to leave the liquid in a container with open lid at a temperature of 25 degrees. If the milk is of high quality, the fermentation process will begin (the composition will become similar to a jelly-like mass). If nothing like this happens to the liquid, this condition indicates the presence of antibiotics in the product. They, in turn, slow down the spread of lactic acid bacteria.
Assessment of acetylsalicylic acid and soda content
The pursuit of extending shelf life leads to manufacturers stuffing milk with acetylsalicylic acid and soda. It is not difficult to determine the presence of such substances; let’s consider the main methods.
- Litmus paper. First of all, dip the plate in milk, then evaluate the result. The soda content is characterized by a blue color, and the presence of acid is red.
- Vinegar essence. Take a glass of milk and add a few drops of essence. As a result chemical process Bubbles may appear. This effect indicates the presence of impurities. If nothing happens, you can be confident in the quality of the product.
- Nitrous acid. Many manufacturers prepare milk from low-fat powder. The naturalness of the product can be checked using nitrous acid (sold in stores household use). Pour the milk into a container and use a pipette to add the acid one drop at a time. In case of yellowing and darkening, the product is unnatural.
- Visual inspection. It is not always necessary to resort to chemical experiments. Sometimes it is enough to shake the milk and determine its naturalness by eye. IN glass containers Opaque grains of product will remain on the walls.
It is not difficult to assess the quality of milk if you have sufficient knowledge regarding possible methods. Check store-bought products for impurities, pay attention to fat content and freshness. Use effective ways, do not violate the instructions.
Video: how to check milk quality at home
When purchasing milk at the market or in a store, we want to get healthy quality product. But not always milk quality can be determined by taste, smell or color. When processing milk, unscrupulous producers add soda, starch, chalk, acetylsalicylic acid, vegetable oils and other substances that increase the shelf life of milk, improve its taste and appearance. As a result, we get more harm from such milk than good.
Ways to check milk quality at home
How to tell if milk is diluted with water
Method 1 .
Take a glass of water, drop milk into the water and observe the drop. If the milk is diluted, a drop of milk will dissolve in the water before reaching the bottom of the glass.
Result
A drop of whole undiluted milk will fall to the bottom of the glass and only then dissolve.
Method 2 .
Take 1 part milk and 2 parts vodka or alcohol, mix in a small jar or test tube, and shake for 30 seconds. Pour the mixture into a saucer.
Result
Undiluted milk will turn into flakes almost immediately (5-6 seconds), since the milk protein casein coagulates under the influence of alcohol.
The more the milk is diluted, the longer the process of flake formation. If milk is diluted with water by 20%, the formation of flakes will occur in 30 seconds, by 40% - the time will increase to half an hour, if the milk is half diluted with water (by 50%) - flakes will form in 40 minutes.
Method 3 .
Mix milk with alabaster into a dough-like mass. Monitor how long it takes for this mass to harden.
Result
If after 10 hours it means milk is not diluted with water. If milk contains 25% water, then the alabaster mass will harden in a couple of hours, 50% in an hour.
How to determine the presence of starch in milk
This is easy to do using alcohol tincture iodine, which should be . Using a pipette, drop a couple of drops of iodine into the milk.
Result
If starch is added to the milk, it will turn blue; if not, the milk will turn yellow.
How to determine that soda and other chemical impurities have been added to milk
This can be done using red and blue litmus papers.
Result
Whole milk, not skimmed, will give a double reaction: the red litmus paper will turn slightly blue, and the blue litmus paper will turn slightly red.
If the red litmus paper turns blue, but the blue color does not change, then there is an excess of alkali in the milk, for example, soda.
If the blue litmus paper turns red, but the red one does not change color, then boric or salicylic acid was mixed into the milk.
How to tell if chalk has been added to milk
The presence of chalk in milk can be checked using ordinary table vinegar. Add vinegar to milk.
Result
As a result of the interaction of vinegar and chalk, foam is formed.
How to determine the presence of additives in milk
The presence of additives in milk can also be determined using vinegar or citric acid. Soak a strip of paper in milk and drop vinegar or citric acid on it.
How to distinguish real milk from fake?
There are reconstituted and normalized milk. Reconstituted milk is milk obtained by mixing water and powdered or condensed milk. According to the regulations, such a product cannot be called milk, but only a milk drink. Apparently this product was discussed in Habitat.
Normalized is milk from which excess fat has been removed or, conversely, added. You can distinguish normalized milk by its color: it has a bluish tint. Detecting such milk is simple: you need to mix milk and alcohol in a 1:2 ratio. In real milk, flakes will appear in 5-7 seconds, in diluted milk, much later. You can drop milk on your nail: real milk will retain the shape of a drop, diluted milk will spread.
Some unscrupulous manufacturers add starch, chalk, and soda to milk. This milk leaves a residue. And if it turns sour, all that remains is to pour it out, because the taste is not sour milk, but some kind of disgusting thing.
A sore topic of our twenty-first century, when we have learned to do whatever you want. Only one problem remains: not everyone can make whatever they want, in our case, fake milk due to the fact that conditions do not allow it, and even if they can only dilute powdered or condensed milk in water.
IN Lately milk that is sold in stores in beautiful containers, from only a maximum of 20% natural milk, the rest is water and powders, this was broadcast on the first channel two years ago and therefore I remembered exactly 20%. In the same program they said that it is practically impossible to distinguish such milk from pure cow's milk. If only people who have been drinking their natural stuff all their lives.
In general, the ingredients usually include whole milk, skim milk and cream, normalized milk, reconstituted milk, etc. This includes only whole milk, the rest with milk powder. Moreover, what is written first is what is more in the composition. It is also important to look at the expiration date; milk cannot be stored for more than ten days. Another sign is the foam that should form when pouring milk, powdered milk do not foam. Yes, and very often the taste of milk from a carton tastes like powdered milk. And to have no doubt at all, it is better to buy homemade milk from a trusted source.))))))
You can be sure that the milk is real if it is milked from a cow before your eyes. In all other cases, 99% that it was faked. They are working on the taste qualities great specialists and if you have not tried fresh milk, it will not be a problem for them to deceive you. So, if there is no cow near the milk, it is probably fake, diluted, low-fat, etc. The price of milk in the store does not mean anything at all. I recently had a case - a pack of expensive milk stood open in a warm place for a week and imagine - the milk didn’t even turn sour. Good milk!
Only in a chemical laboratory. You can, of course, taste it, but there is no point in this, since the real taste of still warm fresh milk is not known to everyone. And there is no reason to do this, because... Now no one will complicate life. and pour perishable milk into tetrapacks. My father was in Germany in 1982, and even then there was only powdered milk. Think about it: milk consumption is approximately the same throughout the year, while its production from a cow's udder depends on grass. From hay and straw, milk yields drop. In addition, there is such a thing as launching cows, I don’t know how it sounds scientifically. But an aunt in the village keeps a cow, and explained that this is when the cow is pregnant, and she is not milked, because a lot of calcium is needed for the formation of the fetus and for many other reasons. And this happens somewhere in January-May. That is, in the spring there is generally little milk. While there is no shortage on supermarket shelves. We only have to choose better quality milk reconstituted from powder, but that’s another question.
Real milk differs from fake milk in that if it is left for 7-8 hours without refrigeration, it will sour, and as a result of oxidation, the so-called sour milk will be obtained. The correct consistency of natural sour milk is when a transparent greenish liquid, known as whey, forms on the surface, and under its layer there is white curdled milk. Sour milk is essentially very useful product, since it is fermented, a natural fermentation process occurred in it, as a result of which natural bacteria, incredibly beneficial for our intestines and microflora, naturally appeared in the resulting product. If milk left without a refrigerator acquired a bitter taste, then it is made from powdered milk. Unfortunately, this is the only way to check the naturalness of milk.
You can only tell if milk is real or fake after purchasing it. In stores, almost the entire range of milk is not natural. Try to look at the price; a cheap package or bottle of milk will definitely be fake. But even if you buy expensive milk, you can end up with fake milk. Look at the expiration date; the shorter it is, the greater the chance that the milk is real.
When the new technical regulations for milk and dairy products came into force, consumers were promised that real milk could now be easily distinguished from diluted milk powder - the latter should be called a “milk drink”. However, several months have passed, and this same drink cannot be found on the shelves.
We often hear from housewives that powdered milk turns sour differently than regular milk - it seems to separate and leave white grains on the walls of the container. AiF decided to conduct an examination of popular varieties of milk: how quickly will it sour at room temperature, how will it change in appearance and taste, will it make cottage cheese?
It won't turn sour
On Wednesday morning we poured the milk into numbered cups and left them in the kitchen. The plan was this: it will sour, the whey will separate (1), strain it all through cheesecloth (2) and make cottage cheese (3). To our great surprise, within a day, and even on Thursday evening, the milk in all glasses was absolutely drinkable. True, the taste was different. Sterilized “Ostankino” and “33 cows” became sweet, “Savushkin product” became somehow tasteless. But UHT “Molokovo!” It started to sour a little. By Friday morning it had become completely inedible, but it had really thickened, only the pasteurized “Vologzhanka” had “curdled”. From it the first and only edible portion of cottage cheese was obtained (see table).
Trust and don't verify
Why did the milk take so long to sour, and why did the cottage cheese turn out bitter? As Larisa Abdullaeva, executive secretary of the Russian Dairy Union, explained to AiF, sterilization gives the drink long life- it does not leave any microorganisms in it. But pasteurized milk should sour faster. If it doesn't, perhaps it contains preservatives? The producers of Vologzhanka claim on the plant’s official website that they have achieved such a shelf life solely thanks to modern equipment for in-depth milk purification - Bactofuge. It should be noted that this milk did not spoil in the refrigerator in an open bag even after the expiration date.
As for the taste of cottage cheese, according to Larisa Abdullaeva, the technology for its production does not provide for sterilization, which disrupts the structure of the protein. In other words, you cannot make tasty cottage cheese from sterilized milk. “In the same way, it is absolutely impossible - neither by taste, nor even with the help of laboratory examination - to determine whether powdered milk is included in the product or not,” says L. Abdullaeva. - Rospotrebnadzor, which monitors the implementation of the regulations, can detect its presence only directly when laying it in production. But he can carry out such an inspection at the enterprise only if there are compelling reasons for doing so. However, manufacturers apparently have really stopped using milk powder or are adding it to yogurt or cottage cheese. One of the capital’s factories produced a “milk drink” at one time, but quickly took it off the line: there was no demand.”
It turns out that the new formulation - “drink” - has not taken root, and the old one - “reconstituted milk” - is not being used after the introduction of the new technical regulations. This means that both we, consumers, and inspection commissions can only trust what is written on the packages. Moreover, in this case, science is on the side of the “milkmen” - if previously a “powdered” product could be recognized by its sweetish taste, then modern methods processing brought it as close to natural as possible. And everything turns sour, as we have seen, in the same way - we did not observe any “crumbs” on the walls of the glass or “stratification” of the sour drink. However, it is quite likely that there really was no powdered milk in our random sample.
By the way
When sterilizing milk within 15 minutes. kept at a temperature of 100 degrees. Pasteurization involves heating to 67° for half an hour. UHT-treated and ultra-pasteurized milk that was heated to 135° and held for only 4 seconds. Normalized means brought to normal in terms of fat content or milk protein content. Whole milk is milk that has not been subjected to such regulation. Restored is the same thing, powder.
Expert's Opinion
Sergey Perminov, technologist at Wimm-Bill-Dann: - The nature of milk souring into cottage cheese or other fermented milk products is determined by the lactic acid microflora present in the milk or introduced. Since sterilized milk was taken for testing, the nature of souring was determined by the accidental ingress of microorganisms from the outside. This is inherent in all sterilized milk. If a spoonful of sour cream were added, it would turn out standard fermented milk product. As for the use of powdered milk, we use it for a product in the milk drink category under the Milaya Mila brand.
It so happens that I am a big fan of milk. I think that it is not only healthy, but also very tasty and nutritious. And I let the talk that it is harmful and unnatural for consumption, since not a single animal constantly produces milk, except those domesticated by humans, pass through my fingers. On this score, my opinion is this: every person feels what he needs, what is easily absorbed in his body, what foods give his body pleasant sensations, and he decides what to consume. And the fact that a person domesticated and bred various mammals and birds on his farm is natural and normal, not only to build factories and dump waste into the river :)
Because people, by their nature, are intellectual, highly developed beings who can use the gifts of nature at their own discretion with one condition - respect for nature itself. Therefore, for me milk is healthy and tasty food, that’s what my body tells me.
Of course, in our synthetic age, we want the food we eat to be as natural as possible and, accordingly, nutritious and rewarding. healthy life into our body. The only way to this is to live on the land, have your own garden, livestock and produce your own food from start to finish. But in reality, it is not always possible to lead peasant farm- it’s not easy.
On this moment My husband and I have not yet acquired own home, farming and gardening, although there are great aspirations for this. Therefore, in the absence of a cow, milk has to be bought in city stores. But at the same time, we are avid road travelers, roaming from city to city across our vast Russia. Farthest eastern point, which we reached is Lake Baikal, the northernmost is the Rybachy Peninsula in the Murmansk region. And in almost every region we buy and taste milk, exact quantity I can’t name any dairy brands I’ve tried. But I have a decent photo collection of bags from my favorite drink. To be convincing, I enclose some of the packaging:
Firstly, I would like to note that I only sample milk in soft or cardboard bags (for example, in Velsk and Vologda they don’t sell milk in soft bags, only in cardboard ones) and only pasteurized milk.
The likelihood that sterilized milk will be natural is very low; in any case, it is milk that is more processed and less retained vitamins and microelements, and most importantly, taste.
We also need to talk about the smell - store-bought milk should smell at least a little like real milk. It should have no purely sweet smell or no smell at all.
We also need to talk about the smell - store-bought milk should smell at least a little like real milk. It should have no purely sweet smell or no smell at all. I determine the quality of milk experimentally - by taste and consistency, which everyone has. proper milk cannot be absolutely homogeneous - there must be a certain amount of floating cream in the drink, or at least the formation of it on the walls of the bag or bottle; purely powdered milk never forms it.
I always keep in mind the taste of village milk, which my grandparents regularly provide me with when we visit them, and I compare all purchased milk with it.
Often, according to my observations, milk always turns out to be tastier and better in small towns and villages than in regional centers, that is, megacities. In big cities it really looks like diluted powder, to which a little salt and sugar have been added for taste, very shameful.
I stopped paying attention to the labels, which are full of phrases: “Real milk”, “From fresh milk”, “No added milk powder” and so on - these are all lies. Basically, even if the milk is made from natural skim milk, vegetable protein is still added to it. After all, where can we get so much natural milk when today we don’t have many farms with cows?
Even Tataria, where you come across brand new, bright cowsheds, is not distinguished by particularly tasty milk, although you still feel that their milk is definitely not dry.
Six months or a year ago I considered the most the best views milk from Vologda, Velskoye (Arkhangelsk region) and Medvezhyegorskoye (Republic of Karelia). Moreover, I thought that this was natural - the Russian North, where plant life Agriculture cannot be greatly developed due to climatic conditions, livestock farming must flourish.
But this year we had the opportunity to spend the winter in the glorious city of Votkinsk (Republic of Udmurtia), where the milk turned out to be of the highest quality! Moreover, I want to clarify that exactly Votkinsk, not Izhevsk or any other. Glazov milk is also good, but still not as tasty and too expensive (in 2014 - about 80 rubles for 1.4 liters).
So, Votkinsk milk. The fat content stated on the package is 3.2%, but in fact it seems to me that it is higher :)
In each (!) purchased package of milk, more than two tablespoons of cream formed on the walls after three or four days in the refrigerator!
And this is what milk looks like without cream - you can see that there are small pieces of cream left floating in it:
And these, in fact, are the very tablespoons that I scoop out of a milk carton every time:
When I saw this when purchasing the first package, my delight knew no bounds - I immediately remembered my childhood, when my mother brought store-bought milk in triangular packages, in the corner of which cream always accumulated and I happily sucked it out...
As you can see from the photographs, the cream is very thick, the consistency is very similar to sour cream.
My joy gave way to insight and I thought: “Really, it’s so simple. And why didn’t I think about it before!? After all, when you boil village milk, a decent amount of cream always accumulates on its surface, which then settles on the walls of the pan. Here it is. - the secret of proper real store-bought milk!"
So my advice for determining quality non-powdered store-bought milk is not in chemicals or physical experiments, not in some sophisticated recipes and tests, but in simple worldly wisdom - the quality of milk can be determined by the presence and quantity of cream in it. They will never be in fake milk.
