News from RIPI - the Russian Institute of Consumer Testing - is related to milk. Experts conducted tests on UHT milk. What kind of milk is this and how does it differ from pasteurized milk?

Both pasteurization and UHT help milk last longer in our refrigerators. True, in the second option the shelf life is much longer and when using aseptic packaging, the milk does not even require a cold place.

With the help of pasteurization, milk is freed from most pathogenic microorganisms when it is thermally processed for several minutes from 63 to 100 degrees.

Ultra-pasteurization is a more tricky process, but it also gives more results in terms of removing pathogenic bacteria than pasteurization. The milk is heated to 135-150 degrees for 1-2 seconds, and then sharply cooled to 4-5 degrees. All this happens in 4 seconds.

Is there anything beneficial left in UHT milk? Undoubtedly. It is even fair to note that during ultrapasteurization there is least amount changes compared to other processing methods (pasteurization, sterilization). IN Soviet time milk was pasteurized at 78 degrees, and this was the best option for preserving the benefits of milk, but such milk was not stored for a long time.

What changes in milk during ultrapasteurization:

1. Enzymes are destroyed
2. The amount of vitamins is reduced by 10%
3. Proteins change slightly

What remains useful after ultra-pasteurization:

1. Calcium and other important trace elements
2. Most of the vitamins (although milk is not the product we hope to enrich the body with vitamins)
3. Milk protein and fats - they slightly change their structure, maintaining nutritional value and digestibility.

If you look at ultrapasteurization soberly, with this process manufacturers protect consumers from microorganisms that can lead to serious illnesses.

All milk in kindergartens is currently UHT.

So, let's move on to the most important thing - the results of the UHT milk test. 11 samples were selected for testing brands milk according to GOST 31450-2013 “Drinking milk. Specifications" Purchases took place in Kazan, Krasnoyarsk, Voronezh, Omsk and Ulan-Ude.

What the researchers were looking for:

• Compliance with fat content and volume indicated on the package
• Presence of vegetable fats
• The information on the packaging is correct

According to the test results: none of the milk samples was counterfeit - no non-dairy fats were found. Same with volume for all manufacturers. full order, and in some samples even slightly overestimated. But the percentage of fat content in some representatives was underestimated. The names of such milk can be found on the RIPI website. Experts also noted shortcomings in the information content on the packaging of some milk producers.

What conclusions can be drawn from this? Frightening rumors about the quality of milk are exaggerated. However, vigilance always saves the average person who cares about the health of his family. Taking milk at random based on the brightness of the packaging is not the best solution. It is more useful to inquire about the manufacturer’s reputation and the results of control tests similar to those carried out by RIPI.

A unique food product. It has a balanced composition, which contains proteins and vitamins, fats and carbohydrates, mineral elements. Its taste is familiar to everyone since childhood. Of the variety of products sold in stores, pasteurized milk is considered the healthiest. What is it, does it retain its composition after processing, can it cause harm to health? The answers to these questions are in this article.

What's happened pasteurized milk?

This is a heat-treated product. It increases shelf life. In the process of industrial pasteurization, milk is heated to 60 degrees for 1 hour or to 80 degrees for half an hour. Under the influence of this temperature, all pathogenic bacteria and microbes that are always present in whole milk are destroyed. During pasteurization, up to 90 or even 99% of microorganisms die (data on this issue vary). Using pumps, milk is cleaned of foreign impurities, then pumped into a separator, where the cream is separated. Then the product is cooled and placed in a special container, packaged and sent to the refrigerator.

The shelf life of the product ultimately increases to a week if stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator. Then the milk sours and curdled milk is formed. At room temperature the product can be stored for only a few hours.

What is the difference UHT milk?

Recently, on store shelves you can find not only pasteurized milk, but also ultra-pasteurized milk. It is produced using a similar technology, but heats up to a higher temperature of 135 degrees in just 2-3 seconds. The conducted studies confirm that such a short processing time is sufficient for high-quality purification of milk from harmful bacteria. Then it is immediately cooled to +4 degrees.

Ultra-pasteurization extends the shelf life of the product to 6 weeks or more, even when stored at room temperature. After opening the package, it remains fresh for 3-4 days, then it sours, like all other milk.

Video: What is hidden under the symbols on milk. Sterilized, pasteurized milk.

Useful properties and composition

Pasteurized milk is inferior in its characteristics to whole milk. Still, it can be called a useful product. Of all modern methods For milk processing, pasteurization is considered the best, since it allows you to remove all foreign impurities and destroy harmful microbes and fungal spores. Therefore, such a product does not require additional boiling before use.

The calorie content of pasteurized milk is low. 100 grams of a product with 2.5% fat content contains 54 Kcal, and 3.5% fat content contains 60 Kcal. By drinking 1 glass, a person receives:

milk protein;

• almost 50% daily norm calcium;
• other minerals - copper, iodine, strontium;
• vitamins D, group B.

A pasteurized product is perfect for people who cannot stand the taste of steamed food. It does not contain preservatives, is safe for health and is suitable for baby food. The temperature at which pasteurization is carried out allows the majority of vitamins and microelements to be preserved.

Pasteurized protein milk is considered especially useful - it is obtained by mixing whole and skim milk powder. It contains 1% fat and 4.3-4.5% protein.

There is also skim pasteurized milk, in which the fat content is only hundredths of a percent. This product is useful for people intolerant to animal fats.

Sterilization occurs at a much higher temperature - up to 150 degrees. Thus, the raw materials are processed within half an hour.

There are 3 main differences between the two types of product:

1. Pasteurized milk retains beneficial lactic acid bacteria, while sterilized milk does not contain any beneficial microflora.
2. Pasteurized milk in a hermetically sealed box is stored for about a week (ultra-pasteurized - 2 months or more). Sterilized products do not lose their quality for a year after production, if the original packaging is not opened during this time.
3. Sterilized milk has less the nutritional value than pasteurized.

In terms of practicality, sterilized milk wins. It lasts much longer. In terms of composition, a pasteurized product is still healthier.

Comparison of pasteurization and ultra-pasteurization

After pasteurization, some bacteria still survive and are particularly heat resistant. Ultra-pasteurization destroys all harmful microorganisms, but useful material at the same time remain: processing is carried out at a higher temperature, but only 2-4 seconds. In such conditions it does not collapse milk sugar(lactose), the original properties of calcium and other mineral salts, vitamins, and enzymes are preserved.

Institute specialists food technologies The USA calls ultra-pasteurization one of the highest achievements of the 20th century. The results of many studies show that such short-term treatment allows you to preserve much more valuable bacteria and vitamins. Many of these beneficial substances cannot withstand prolonged heat during the pasteurization process and are destroyed.

How to make milk stay fresh and healthy longer?

If there is a need to extend the shelf life of pasteurized milk, you can freeze it. IN freezer the product will retain its beneficial qualities. Only you should freeze it only once, and then you need to boil it. It is worth boiling pasteurized milk even if you are going to feed it to a small child.

You can pasteurize farm milk at home. This will help extend the shelf life, because such a product sours very quickly. Will be needed large saucepan, sterilized bottles or jars with tight lids and a funnel. The procedure is as follows:

Pour milk into a saucepan.

Boil.

Cool.

Pour into jars.

Close tightly and put in the refrigerator.

Pasteurized milk, prepared at home, can stand in the cold with the lid tightly closed for about a week. All this time it will remain fresh, all beneficial bacteria, vitamins, and microelements will be preserved in it.

Possible harm

Potential harm to the product mainly stems from the fact that chemicals may be added to extend shelf life.

As a result of pasteurization, up to 90% of the vegetative forms of bacteria that live in milk die. The problem is that only those microorganisms that are in an active state are destroyed. Their spores remain viable (although they cannot withstand ultra-pasteurization). After entering the human body, when more or less favorable conditions appear, they will begin to multiply quickly. Therefore, pasteurized milk should be stored correctly - at a cool temperature and not longer than the deadline indicated on the packaging. Otherwise, consuming the product may result in poisoning and other negative reactions of the body.

We can conclude that pasteurized milk is not completely neutralized. It would be more correct to call it a product with an extended shelf life. If storage conditions are met and the milk itself is of high quality, then it carries no more health risks than fresh milk.

Hidden threats to children

Pasteurized milk is optimal for baby food. It doesn't have harmful preservatives, which provoke allergic reactions, including diathesis.

There is also a warning for parents. It is recommended for children to prepare porridge with pasteurized milk only from the age of 6-7 years. After 1 year, the baby can drink it, but not earlier.

It is better to boil pasteurized milk for a child. During the heat treatment at the factory, some microorganisms covered with a resistant film are not destroyed. They are safe for adults, but children's body more sensitive.

How to choose healthy milk in the store?

There are many types of pasteurized milk. Therefore, in the store you should first look at the production date and expiration date. If it has expired or will expire soon, it is better to refuse the purchase.

Plastic bags are not suitable for long-term storage product. They are also not strong enough. Plastic transfers foreign taste and odor to milk. U glass bottles There is no such shortage, but it is better to choose products in cardboard bags. They are great for long-term storage.

You should also study the composition. If it says whole milk, it's natural product, which has undergone heat treatment. Whole milk can be diluted with reconstituted - produced from dry powder. It is not necessarily of poor quality, there are simply fewer useful substances in such a product.

There is an easy way to check the quality of milk. You need to drop a drop of it into a glass of water. If it sinks to the bottom, the milk is whole; if it spreads, it is diluted.

Good pasteurized milk does not have sediment, but this can only be checked at home after opening the package.

Antibiotics are often found in imported milk. If it does not sour for a long time, it means that these substances are in the product, as well as acidity stabilizers. It is clearly not worth buying it - it will not bring any health benefits.

Milk is unique product, which has a unique composition of nutrients - proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats and carbohydrates. Each of us has been familiar with this product since childhood. But today, unfortunately, fresh milk is not available to everyone, so we are forced to purchase it in stores.

If earlier you could see pasteurized and sterilized milk on supermarket shelves, today UHT has also been added to them. However, not everyone has information about this product. And due to the fact that we all want our diet to include only healthy foods, we need to know how this type of milk is produced. So let's figure out together what the benefits, and maybe the harm, of ultra-pasteurized milk are.

So, ultrapasteurization is a thermal treatment process that lasts for four seconds at temperature conditions 135°C. As a rule, milk is processed in this way and fruit juices. Many studies have shown that this time is enough for milk to be cleared of harmful bacteria. And with such short-term heat treatment, the benefits of milk do not disappear, which is important.

Ultra-pasteurized milk contains vitamins B, A, H, C, PP and D. If speak about chemical composition, then this product is saturated with calcium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, zinc, iron, cobalt, potassium, sodium, organic acids and unsaturated fats.

If you store UHT milk correctly, then everything beneficial features are stored in it for a long time. According to the suppliers' instructions, such a product can be stored for a whole year, which is why many people have the question: “Does this product cause harm to our body?”

I would like to immediately answer that no, UHT milk does not harm your health. Many studies have proven that pasteurized milk contains much less vitamins and beneficial bacteria, since the pasteurization process lasts longer than ultra-pasteurization, which kills all the beneficial substances.

There is also an opinion that ultra-pasteurized milk is made mainly from low-quality raw materials. This is a deep misconception. This product is made exclusively from natural cow's milk, and the most highest quality, because if you take “bad” raw materials, then during heat treatment it will instantly curl up.

Due to the high cost of ultra-pasteurization equipment, suppliers cannot afford to break it, so milk is selected through strict checks.

Beneficial properties of ultrapasteurized milk

Ultra-pasteurized milk brings the following benefits to the body:

• thanks to calcium, which this product abounds in, the skeletal system is strengthened;
• has a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system;
• contributes to the normalization of metabolic processes in the body;
• helps cope with depression, stress, improves sleep;
• has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.

Agree that fresh milk is very fatty, which is why it is prohibited from being included in the diet of small children. But for the preparation of various children's dishes, almost all pediatricians recommend using ultra-pasteurized milk, which contains very little fat, but at the same time a lot of useful substances and vitamins that are so necessary for the full development of a growing organism.

Another plus of this product that it can be consumed without prior heat treatment, which cannot be said about milk purchased on the market, which can harbor many pathogenic bacteria.

How harmful is this product?

1. Individual intolerance to all types of milk. Global studies have shown that ¼ of people have an allergic reaction to milk.
2. Possibility of cancer in men. This is due to the fact that on farms some hormones are added to the food of cows in order to obtain milk yield. all year round. It is these hormones that are dangerous for our stronger half.
3. The issue regarding the consumption of ultra-pasteurized milk by older people also remains controversial. It is believed that with age, the body loses enzymes that digest milk protein, and by drinking it, people do not receive useful substances, but only harm their health.

But be that as it may, such milk, like, in principle, any product, can benefit our body, the main thing is to know when to stop and not abuse it.

Take care of your health!

When buying milk in a store, we naturally expect to receive high-quality, safe and useful product. To do right choice, you need to understand the features various methods heat treatment that milk undergoes at dairies.

As a rule, the question of why heat treatment is needed in principle does not arise for a literate person. We all understand that raw milk- an excellent environment for the reproduction of various bacteria and microorganisms. That is why our mothers and grandmothers always boiled it before using it. But boiling kills not only bacteria, but also many beneficial substances. Therefore, today other, more modern methods are used.

Milk heat treatment methods: understanding the differences

The most progressive and gentlest is ultra-pasteurization. It is also called superpasteurization, ultra-high temperature treatment (UHT), and in the English version - ultra-high temperature processing. Let's try to figure out what the advantages of this technology are, and how UHT milk differs from its “brothers”.

Some facts and statistics

The US Institute of Food Technology recognized ultra-pasteurization as “the most important achievement Food Industry XX century". In the European Union, according to sociological surveys, seven out of ten people choose UHT milk. Economic data also confirms this. For example, in Belgium the market share of such milk is 96.7%, in Spain - 95.7%, in France - 95.5%.

In the countries of the former Soviet Union, ultra-pasteurized milk is not a new product, but not so popular. This is due, first of all, to widespread prejudices about shelf-stable milk and ignorance of the main advantages of this “advanced” technology. Most people tend to prefer the familiar and understandable pasteurized milk.

Pasteurization

Of course, in the history of heat treatment of milk, pasteurization once became a real breakthrough. It was invented by French microbiologist Louis Pasteur in the mid-19th century, and the technology has not changed much since then.

Milk is heated to 75 - 85 ° C and maintained at this temperature from 10-40 seconds to several minutes. This kills dangerous pathogenic bacteria. E. coli also dies, but its spores, like those of other bacteria, remain unharmed. The fact is that the spores have a more durable shell and are resistant to high temperatures (even temperatures of 90°C are not scary for them). The shelf life of such milk is several days, after which spores begin to actively develop, and drinking such milk becomes unsafe. Pasteurized milk should only be stored in the refrigerator, and it is advisable to boil it before use. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, home boiling destroys nutrients contained in milk: vitamins, milk proteins, including casein - unique protein, absent in other products, and albumin, which plays an important role in the functioning of the circulatory system. So the benefits of boiled milk are very doubtful.

Ultra pasteurization

Ultrapasteurization solves this problem. This technology allows you to clean milk from all unwanted and dangerous bacteria and their spores, while preserving the microelements and vitamins that make milk a valuable healthy product.

The secret is this: for a very short period of time (4 seconds), the milk is exposed to ultra-high temperatures of 135-140°C, and then very quickly cooled to 4-5°C. Such heat turned out to be fatal for bacteria and spores, but beneficial substances do not have time to change their structure and collapse in such a short time.

Studies by international institutes and health organizations in the United States, the European Union and New Zealand have come to the same conclusion: UHT milk preserves all nutritional benefits drinking milk without the risk of contracting diseases that may be caused by microorganisms present in raw milk.

A little more about the intricacies of ultra-pasteurization: raw materials and packaging

It is important that not any milk can be used as a raw material for ultra-pasteurization, but only extra or premium. The fact is that under the influence of ultra-high temperatures, insufficiently high-quality raw materials will curl up in the sterilizer pipes and ruin expensive equipment. Naturally, this is not included in the plans of any enterprise. Therefore, milk is purchased only from certified suppliers and undergoes mandatory laboratory testing to ensure compliance with all norms and standards.

To exclude the possibility of bacteria getting into the milk already at production, it is immediately poured into Tetra Pak aseptic cardboard bags. This package is complex system of 6 layers providing tightness and maximum protection from light and oxygen. In addition, one of the layers - foil - creates a “refrigerator effect”, preventing the milk from heating up.

Ultra-pasteurized milk (purified of microorganisms, spores and enzymes that cause fermentation) in such packaging can be safely stored at room temperature (20-25°C) for several months. This means you can take the bag with you to work, give it to children at school, on a walk or on an excursion. But you should remember that if you opened the pack and did not drink it all at once, you need to store the product in the refrigerator.