Chapter 6 - Insights into the technological and nutritional aspects of lactic milk drinks: buttermilk

Abstract

Fermentation is one of the earliest natural processes involving food and its preservation that humans sought to control. Amongst the principal beneficial dairy products, buttermilk is considered to possess excellent health and illness curing potentials, which is now gaining high attention from consumers worldwide. Moreover, many essential nutritional elements such as proteins, vitamin B12, minerals (calcium, phosphorus and potassium), riboflavin and enzymes are present in buttermilk. Traditionally, buttermilk originates from the result of churned butter/ghee, which is rich in proteins, milk fat globule membrane, lactose, minerals and lecithin. It is difficult to estimate how much buttermilk is produced in India, but many estimate that approximately 500 million kilograms of buttermilk is produced each year as an end product. Dried buttermilk contains high phospholipids which makes it a good functional ingredient in food formulations. The lactic acid bacteria is involved in the production of various metabolites which adds nutritive value to the fermented milk products, besides nutrients available from the milk. The main purpose of this study is to shed light into the different technological aspects in the production of cultured buttermilk. It has several applications in the production of functional nutrients which are among the technological properties; for example, encapsulation of easily degraded activities and fermentative processes, inhibition of bacterial adherence on industrial surfaces and a conduct for the incorporation of probiotics. Buttermilk casein is different from skim milk casein in many aspects, and mostly the former is more desirable than the latter. Buttermilk intrinsically in condensed form is used as animal feed and dried buttermilk is added in the formulation of their mixed feeds.