Production of cream with size differentiated milk fat globules—modified centrifugal separation approach

Abstract

The present study was aimed to produce creams (> 25% fat) with size based fractioned fat globules by employing a modified centrifugal separation process, and to evaluate the fatty acid composition and thermal properties of fat fractions. Cream separation was conducted in two stages. First stage was employed for producing cream by partial skimming of whole milk and second stage was used for producing cream by washing of cream from first stage. Results showed that, two subsequent separation stages were able to produce creams with mean fat globules size of 4.16 μm and 4.77 μm respectively from whole cow milk with average fat globule size of 3.52 μm. Washed cream contained higher percentage (32.35%) of large fat globules (> 5 μm), significantly higher (p < 0.05) proportion (70.79%) of saturated fatty acids and greater quantity (17.73%) of solid fat at 30°C. In contrast, fully separated cream produced by unmodified separator contained higher proportion (16.14%) of small size globules (< 3 μm), significantly higher (p < 0.05) amount of short chain fatty acid (1.11%), monounsaturated fatty acid (25.06%) and greater quantity (54.55%) of fat melted at 10°C.