Milk | Buffalo Milk

Abstract

Buffalo milk constitutes over 12% of the global milk production, and in the Indian subcontinent the greater part of the milk produced is by buffaloes (>53% in India and >68% in Pakistan, of the total milk production). Buffalo milk provides more energy per unit volume than provided by cow’s milk due to its higher fat and protein content. Due to the higher content of total solids, fat, proteins, and colloidal calcium, and the larger size of the casein micelles and fat globules, buffalo milk is well suited for fluid milk supply, fermented products (dahi, yogurt, shrikhand, lassi, leben, cremir, etc.), fat-rich dairy products (cream, butter, ghee, butter oil, etc.), heat desiccated and acid-coagulated products (khoa, paneer, casein, and caseinate), ice cream, and dairy whitener. On the other hand, buffalo milk is not considered suitable for the manufacture of certain ripened cheese varieties, namely, Cheddar, Gouda, Emmental, and so on, as the cheese made from buffalo milk has a flat flavor and a hard, rubbery and dry body and texture. Further, the quality of buffalo milk chhana (a product used as an ingredient in sweetmeats and as table butter) is not comparable to that of the same product from cow’s milk due to its hard texture. The lower heat capacity and the higher thermal conductivity and thermal expansion of buffalo milk clearly indicate that a lower amount of heat energy is required to achieve certain desired heat effects in buffalo milk as compared to cow’s milk. Therefore, time–temperature combinations for its heat processing may have to be standardized and suitably modified to get the desired effect.