Food Product Analysis: Dutch Lady Full Cream Milk

• Wong Jun Yik

Food Product & Nutritional Label

Topic 1(a): List of Major & Minor Food Compound

Ingredient list: Milks solids non-fat, Milk Fat, Calcium, Vitamin A, Vitamin B2, Vitamin D3 & plant origin stabilizer, Water

Major Food component : Milk Solids non-fat (Protein: Casein & Whey and Carbohydrates: Lactose) & Milk Fat (Lipids), Water

Minor Food component : Calcium (Mineral) & Vitamin A, B2, D3 (Fat & Water soluble vitamin)

Food Additive: Plant origin permitted stabilizer

Topic 1(b): Role of Food compound in Food

The only food additive that are applied in the production of Dutch lady UHT full cream milk is a permitted stabilizer that are originated from plant sources. While the specific name of the stabilizer is not presented in the food label. The stabilizer could be derived from carrageenan that functions as an emulsifier in the milk product. Below describe the general functions of the plant originated stabilizer used in the production of UHT milk.

Topic 2(a): Nutritional & Health Claim

In the content of nutritional and health claim for the Dutch Lady UHT Full cream milk, no nutritional and health claim in identifiable from the packaging of the UHT Milk.

Topic 2(b): Enrichment & Fortification

According to the Dutch Lady Malaysia website, nutrient such as protein, Vitamin B2 and calcium are being enriched into the UHT Full cream milk during the milk production. The purpose for enrichment of the milk is to increase the nutritional value that aids in reproduction of body tissue that is essential to the growth and development. Besides, enrichment of calcium and vitamin B2 in milk would help to improve the bones development as well as to increase the facilitation of energy release. By definition, enrichment is process where food manufacturer replenish the nutrient that were lost during the processing. For the Dutch lady UHT milk, the factor that contributes to the enrichment of nutrient is highly influence by two unit of operation in the milk production: (1) Ultra high temperature preservation technique that destroy heat sensitive nutrient such as vitamin B2 and protein and (2) Recombination/ Reconstitution process that utilize milk solid and milk powder as main ingredient. Recombined milk is a type of milk emulsion produce through the combination of milk powder, milk solids, milk fat & water (Walstra, Wouters and Geurts, 2006). Because the milk solid and milk powder is extracted from the raw milk by the milk product manufacturer, nutrient that are water soluble such as vitamin B and mineral are being separated from the milk solid leading to the needs of enrichment during the production of recombined milk. Besides, the enrichment of nutrient in milk is also needed to achieve the requirement set by the Food regulatory body such as Ministry of health and FDA.

Topic 3(a): Factors influencing the deterioration of food

Dutch Lady UHT full cream milk is a product which undergoes Ultra-High Temperature (UHT) preservation technique that are being package into an aseptic packaging that are made out of paperboard, polyethylene and aluminum foil that have the properties against pH, oxygen, light and microbial deterioration. With such, the factor that influences the deterioration of UHT Milk is mainly contributed by the physical stress toward the packaging that would cause a breakage in the packaging. In addition, the breakages caused by physical stress would increases the opportunity toward additional biological and physical deterioration factor such as changes in color and flavor causes by the exposure to light, oxidative rancidity through exposure to oxygen and contamination by food-poisoning microorganisms. Moreover, the utilization and the opening of UHT milk packaging by end-user also encourage the deterioration of the milk. Lastly, contaminated packaging and machinery in the product line could contribute to the food deterioration. Below describe the factor influencing the deterioration of Dutch lady UHT milk in the packaging as well post-usage deterioration.

Physical factor

• Physical Stress: Unprofessional handling and improper storage condition are the major contribution to the deterioration of the aseptic packaging of the milk carton. With opening of the milk carton that is causes by the mechanical stress, it expose the milk toward deterioration such as oxidation and light inducted color changes that are cause the food undesirable to consume. Besides, the opening of the milk carton causes the infestation and attraction of rodent that is naturally vector that carries harmful microorganism.
• Oxygen: With the opening of the aseptic packaging causes by physical stress and the usage of UHT milk by end-user. Both expose the UHT milk toward oxygen which encourages the oxidative rancidity of milk lipids that leads to the formation of undesirable aroma. In addition, the expose of oxygen also provide a suitable condition for the microbial growth
• Light: The exposure of UHT milk toward sunlight can cause the milk to lose its nutritional properties through the disruption of vitamin B2. Moreover, milk that are exposes to sunlight also cause the milk to develop undesirable burned flavor that are due to the light inductive oxidation of fats and causes the changes in the structure of whey protein.

Biological factor

• Growth and Activities of Microorganism: With opening of the packaging cause by physical stress and by consumer, this increase the opportunity of contamination by microorganism that is capable to cause degradation of protein, carbohydrates and fats that deteriorate the quality of the milk. Besides, foul aromas that are being developed by these spoilage microorganisms are deteriorate the quality of the milk. Moreover, other than deterioration that are causes during storage and by consumer, deterioration of UHT milk product also can be contributed by machinery used in the production line of the UHT milk such as the seal in the homogenizer as well as the air supplied to the aseptic packing unit (Tamime, 2009). In addition, the faulty seams and pinholes in the aseptic packaging box carton are major source of spoilage bacteria in the UHT milk that contribute the deterioration of the food product (Varnam & Sutherland, 2001).

Topic 3 (b): Principle of food preservation method used

Based on the information given in the Dutch lady Malaysia website and the packaging, the principle of food preservation method being applied into the UHT full cream milk is Aseptic processing with the purpose to achieve commercial sterility. Aseptic processing is physical preservation methods that involve the utilization of heat to achieve sterility. The purpose of utilizing heat preservation method in the production of UHT Milk is to increase the keeping quality and the shelf life of the milk product. In addition, the utilization of heat treatment helps to reduce both the spoilage and pathogenic microbial population and their spore such as mycobacterium tuberculosis, salmonella species, staphylococcus aureus, etc. Besides, heat preservation treatment help to inhibit enzymatic activity that is derived natively from milk as well as to limit the autoxidation that causes the chemical deterioration of milk lipids (Walstra, Wouters and Geurts, 2006).

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Commercial sterility in the context of food manufacturing is define as the degree of sterilization that destroy all pathogenic and toxin forming microorganism that are capable to causes spoilage in food under normal handling and storage condition(Vaclavik and Christian, 2008). In the production of Dutch lady UHT Full cream milk, commercial sterility is achieve through aseptic processing which involve the usage of thermal processing in the form of Ultra high temperature(UHT) preservation technique followed by aseptic packaging technique.

The combination of UHT treatment coupled with aseptic packaging made a fundamental improvement in term of the bacteriological safety. Moreover, Aseptic processing improve the shelf life of the dairy product from typical 1-2 weeks of the refrigerated pasteurized product to longer shelf life ranging from 6-9 months without the need of refrigeration as well as the addition of food additive to increase its shelf life. Besides, the shelf life stability of the UHT Milk product that are contributed by the aseptic packaging benefits countries where environmental temperature is high as well as the limitation of refrigeration. (Tewari and Juneja, 2007)

Topic 4: Unit of Operation in food production

The units of operation involved in the production of Dutch Lady UHT Full cream milk are:

(1) Recombination process, (2) Ultra High Temperature process, (3) Homogenization process and (4) Aseptic packaging

• Recombination process: A recombined milk product is produce through a combination of milk fat and milk solids-nonfat with or without water to re-establish the consistency of natural milk. The recombination process of the milk start with the dispersion of skim milk powder in the water with a temperature ranging between 40 to 50 C. The milk powder is being fed into the water through the usage of hopper with care taken to avoid any in-cooperation of air. There are various method used to in cooperated the powder into the water, where pre emptying the milk powder in a dry room with dust removal system is commonly applied in the recombination process. After the in-cooperation of milk powder with water, the reconstituted milk is left for minimum 15 to 20 minutes of hydration with the purpose of minimizing the powdery and chalky mouth feel. In some milk product manufacturer, the reconstituted milk is held overnight at 4 C prior to further processing to ensure complete hydration. Upon the completion of hydration process, the reconstituted milk is transfer for filtration to separate out any undissolved milk powder particle. The reconstituted milk is then left for vacuum de-aeration for 20 minutes to remove occluded air that are commonly found in the milk powder with the purpose to prevent the fouling of heat exchanger and excessive oxidation. Lastly, the reconstituted milk is heated to 60 to 65 C with the in-cooperation of liquid milk fat or anhydrous milk fat making a course emulsion through virtuous stirring in a static mixer (USDEC, 2005).

• Ultra High Temperature: The combination of UHT processing together with aseptic packaging in milk was introduced to achieve a shelf stable product, at the same time minimizing chemical change as compared to the in-container sterilized milk. There are two type of heating method involved in the UHT process: direct & indirect heating. In direct heating, UHT process is achieve by mixing superheated steam with milk. While in-direct heating achieve UHT through transferring heat from plate heat exchanger(PHE) across a partition between the milk and the heating medium either through steam or hot water (Mehta, 1980; Burton,1988). The Ultra high temperature processing involve heating the milk in a continuous process system to a relatively high temperature ranging around 135 degree Celsius with a minimum two second of holding time followed by a rapid cooling. Since the sterilization and cooling process of the flowing liquid-milk in the UHT process is relatively close, the longtime heat penetration problem derived from the in-container sterilization is avoided. Through the rapid heat transfer technique utilize in the UHT process, undesirable changes in taste and nutritional quality of the milk is minimized. (Tewari and Juneja, 2007)

• Aseptic Packaging: Aseptic packaging is a form of preservation technique involved the filling of sterile milk product into the sterile container (aseptic tank) in a sterile environment. It is then subsequently sealed through a continuous process that provides a high operational flexibility as well as high stability against microbial contamination (Tewari and Juneja, 2007). Moreover, the application of aseptic packaging allowed the milk to be package into a relatively versatile container that does not require any form of refrigeration condition that can be easily distributed in part of the world where refrigeration is uncommon. The most common aseptic packages used in the UHT milk are the tetrahedral-shaped paperboard cartons exemplified by Tetra Pak that is made out from the laminated roll stock consist a combination of polyethylene, paper, polyethylene, aluminum foil, polyethylene, and a coating of ionomer resin (Potter and Hotchkiss, 1998).

• Homogenization: Homogenization process is a universal set of industrial practice, purpose to stabilize the fat and water emulsions against separation that are causes by the gravitational pull (Bylund, 1995). In composition of the milk and cream, milk lipids are made out of fat globule that varies from 0.1 to 20 µm in diameter that have the tendency to gather into clumps which rises due to their relatively lighter density as compared to skim milk. This separation between the milk lipids and milk causes highly visible separated layers that are undesirable and unappealing to consumer. To eliminate the separation of milk, homogenization process is applied in the production of milk to cause the disruption of fat globules in order reduce its size to a smaller one, where the new interface is covered with milk protein predominantly micellar casein. Consequently, help to minimize the creaming properties of the milk as well as the tendency for fat globules to coalesce. Moreover, the purpose of integrating homogenization process in the production of UHT milk is further supported work from Walstra, Wouters and Geurts , where the process help to counteracting the creaming of milk lipids, to improve the stability towards partial coalescence as well as to create a desirable rheological properties of the milk (Walstra, Wouters and Geurts, 2006).

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