Synergy of dairy with non-dairy Ingredients or product: A review

Abstract

Milk is considered to be a wholesome food. Any food product made out of milk will obviously be highly nutritious. However, milk per se has certain limitations like allerginicity, lactose intolerance, cholesterol, saturated fat content, etc. With advancement in technology, several dairy derived ingredients are being produced that when used in conjunction with other food ingredients in food manufacture can yield ‘value-added’ products that have balanced nutrition, and exhibiting superior functionalities as well as ‘wellness’ in food application. This implicates the synergy of dairy with other food ingredients/products; such combination exhibits effects that are probably not obtained when either ingredient is used singly. Typical examples are products derived from a blend of milk and vegetable milk; Mozzarella cheese as pizza topping; milk crumb for milk chocolate; blend of vegetable oil and milk fat for Fat spreads; milk solids in baked goods; blend of milk, barley and wheat flour in Malted milk food and so on. The food products encompassing dairy and non-dairy ingredients include; filled milk and milk products, cheese analogues, gulabjamun mix powders, fruited yoghurts, etc. Literature pertaining to some popular traditional Indian sweetmeats which utilizes other valued food ingredients has also been reviewed. Dairy together with fruit and vegetable ingredients may get transformed into ‘functional foods’ that is gaining grounds in recent years.