Manipulation of milk fat composition to meet market needs

Abstract

There is growing interest in healthy eating. Current trends are being reinforced by the supermarket chains, which now regard the trends towards healthy eating as a permanent shift in consumer attitudes to food rather than a passing fad.The 1984 COMA report on “Diet and Cardiovascular Disease” recommended a 25% reduction In the consumption of saturated fats. It was suggested that this change could be made by reducing total fat intake but would be facilitated by an accompanying shift in the polyunsaturated/saturated fatty acid ratio (P:S). For the average British diet with a P:S ratio of 0.23, fat Intake would need to be reduced by 25% but with a move to the recommended ratio of 0.45 the required reduction would he 17%. Milk fat is particularly implicated in these recommendations since it is moderately high In saturated fatty acids and very low in polyunsaturated fatty acids; the P:S ratio is approximately 0.03.