Checking the fat content of milk in artisanal conditions

To do this, you must first express your primary milk. Since it is intended for drinking, it has the same composition as water and does not affect the overall fat content. Then, when the main milk starts to come up, you need to take about 10 ml into the container. The container is left to settle for 6 hours. During this time, the fatty part will rise to the top and it will be possible to determine its percentage by appearance. A fat content of 4% is considered normal.

Precious interest

A milk quality analyzer is an expensive device. The device is also used to determine the fat content of the product. If for industrial turnover or large farms it is an integral part of the business, then if you have one or two cows it is a luxury.

However, for many cattle owners, the question remains of how to determine the fat content of a cow’s milk at home. There are ways that will help you find out about this property without extra costs.

The method is based on the main property of the product – lightness. The fat in cow's milk is in the form of small globules and consists of glycerol and acids. The higher the proportion of fat, the smaller the size of the balls. The viscosity reading increases accordingly. It is thanks to the fat on the surface of the milk that cream is formed. Therefore, the calorie content of the product depends on what percentage.

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For example, skim milk contains only 31 kcal per hundred grams, and 1.5 percent milk has 44 kcal. A treat with 2.5 percent fat content has 52 kcal, 3.2 percent has eight kcal more. Next comes 3.5 percent milk with 61 kcal, and in six percent milk the calorie content reaches 84.

To determine the fat content of a cow’s milk at home, you need to do a small and simple trick:

1. take clean, dry dishes. It could be a glass or a jar;
2. Pour a little milk into the container, up to the curved area if using a can;
3. after this you need to measure the distance from the bottom to the liquid level. The interval should be exactly ten centimeters;
4. place the milk in a dark place at room temperature;
5. leave the container for eight hours.

After the specified time, cream will begin to appear on the surface. Their quantity will help check the fat content of domestic cow's milk. The layer of cream is measured with a ruler. Each millimeter is equal to one percent fat content. If three millimeters of cream appears during the specified time, then the fat content of the milk corresponds to three.

Of course, it is impossible to talk about the absolute reliability of such a simple method. After all, when measuring, the density of the cream is not taken into account. It is directly dependent on the animal’s nutrition, season, genetics and other indicators. But you can find out approximately how much fat content cow’s milk has.

Igor Nikolaev

auto RU

An alternative to this method is a similar one, but using scales.

Take the settled milk and cream and mark the boundary between them with a pencil. You need to outline the border of the milk, the border of the beginning and end of the cream. Everything is poured into another container.

After this, the weight of water is measured to the level of the very first mark from the bottom, then part of the water between the marks. This will become clear as you add it. For more accurate calculations, the can is weighed separately and then all together with the subtraction of the tare weight.

Finally, the weight of water between the marks is divided by the total mass of liquid, the figure is multiplied by one hundred percent. This is how the percentage of cream is calculated, the amount of which is proportional to the fat content. For example, with 15 percent cream the fat content is 0.25. Next, the amount of cream as a percentage is multiplied by the fat content factor.

You can also resort to tables with information about animal breeds under equal nutritional and maintenance conditions. Breeds that produce high-fat milk live mainly in foreign countries. There, breeders reach fat milk production through experiments within the herd over many years. But this form will give an even more relative result than the previous two.

Checking milk in a special center

Baby refuses breast milk

If you wish, you can use the services of laboratories, they will provide a more accurate analysis, but for the most part such measures are required only for women who have some kind of disease or a hereditary predisposition to a lack of fat in breast milk. If the child is gaining weight on a stable schedule, is cheerful and behaves well, then there is no need for laboratory intervention.

How to check the fat content of breast milk

There is no point in guessing on the coffee grounds. Trying to independently determine the degree of fat content of milk is also unsuccessful. Only doctors can answer this exciting question .

So, if a mother suspects that her milk is not good enough for her baby, she should consult a doctor. If the specialist decides that your concerns are justified, he will prescribe a special chemical analysis of breast milk . If laboratory tests are beyond your means or you generally avoid doctors, remember the old methods. The fat content of milk can be determined by its residues in the breast. The fattier the milk, the less of it remains after feeding.

Even in the maternity hospital, breastfeeding specialists explain to mothers that there is fore and hind milk. The first comes in the first minutes of feeding, and is not thick and fatty, but the second is of great value for the baby. Hindmilk contains all the necessary nutrients. If an inexperienced mother often shifts the baby from one breast to the other, then the baby risks being left without fatty hind milk .

Many mothers believe that all the foods they eat go into breast milk. This is wrong. If your milk is not fat enough, you need to increase the fat content. To do this, just adjust your diet.

Visual check of the lack of fat content in the baby

How to tell if your baby is not getting enough breast milk

The fat content of milk directly affects the rate of growth and development of the baby. An undernourished baby cannot directly communicate this, perhaps he will not even cry much, but when weighed, a lack of weight gain will certainly be revealed. Therefore, if a child is not gaining weight well, it is first necessary to determine whether the mother’s milk is rich enough. At the same time, the fat content of milk may differ depending on the age of the baby and this is absolutely normal.

The difference between homemade milk

Indicators of milk from the store are indicated on the packaging. A conscientious manufacturer provides information about the nutritional properties and fat content of the product. And a fastidious consumer can choose which factor will be decisive for him. Either this is sterilized milk, or pasteurized, baked or for dietary nutrition.

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Types of milk are distinguished depending on the duration of heat treatment and heating temperature. There are also thickness indicators and fat content percentage. It should be remembered that during processing, most beneficial bacteria and vitamins are killed. Let's see the difference between homemade and store-bought in relation to fat content.

When choosing store-bought milk, the buyer is based not only on the availability of information. Sometimes nothing else is simply not available to him and there is no information about the fat content of homemade cow's milk. Meanwhile, purchasing a product from a proven farm from clean and responsible farmers brings more health benefits. But it won't hurt to pasteurize it. To do this, just heat it on the stove and immediately remove it when rising.

There is also a consumer opinion that the fat content of homemade milk is too high. It is not absorbed, causing stomach upsets and other troubles. There is some truth in this assumption. But most likely in such cases we are talking about compliance with milking technology and sterility.

In addition, when milk is processed on an industrial scale, many enzymes are destroyed. Hence, the taste and consequences of consumption differ. There are several rules for drinking milk, including full-fat milk:

1. drink hot or warm, cold is considered very hard on the stomach;
2. eat without other foods, especially salty and sour ones, add only sugar or cook porridge with it;
3. you can add cinnamon, ginger or other spices.

Checking through heredity

How to wean your baby off breastfeeding at night

The easiest way. It is necessary to ask your closest relatives what kind of milk they had or look at their babies. If they proudly show off large babies with big cheeks and butts, then additional research may not be necessary; most likely, this was inherited by the young mother.

How to measure the fat content of milk at home without special instruments

Fat content is, in fact, the same calorie content. Over the long period of sales and popularity of the product, based on chemical analyses, it was possible to create the most accurate calculation of calorie content per 100 ml.

But there is also a household way to check the fat content of milk at home. It is interesting for those who subsequently use milk to create fermented milk products, and also sell it. The traditional method has not lost its popularity for a long time.

In order to measure fat content, first of all, you need to pour milk into a deep container. As a rule, I use a glass jar.

How to determine how much milk you need? – On average, the calculation is for 0.5 liters, so it is recommended to take such a container and fill it to the top. You need to measure how much the height is from the bottom to the neck. Then the container with the liquid is transferred to a dark place with a temperature of no more than 23 degrees. Measurements must be taken after 9 hours. A layer of cream forms on the surface; its height, which can be measured with a regular school ruler or a tool in a smartphone, will directly indicate the percentage of fat content.

Knowing how to check the fat content of cow's milk, you can collect milk in advance from different cows with different caloric content and use it for different purposes: from one type to make cottage cheese, from another - sour cream or cream.

Establishment of fat content and acidity

The fat content of milk purchased in bulk or in standard packaging is easy to determine yourself. For this, in addition to milk, you will need:

• ruler;
• a tall glass without a pattern or a test tube.

Use a ruler to measure 10 cm from the bottom and put a mark. Then you need to pour milk into the glass exactly to the mark and leave in a warm place for 8 hours. When the product settles, a layer of cream will appear on top. It must be measured in millimeters as accurately as possible. The calculation is carried out according to the following formula: 1 mm of cream = 1% fat content. Therefore, if their height is 5 mm, then the fat content of the entire drink is 5%.

Information about the acidity of milk is necessary for those involved in home cheese making. To determine it, there are special ready-made tests. At home, you can also calculate the acidity of the product using phenolphthalein, distilled water and sodium hydroxide.

Sequencing:

1. Use a pipette to measure 10 ml of milk into a test tube.
2. Add 20 ml of distilled water and 3 drops of phenolphthalein.
3. Gradually lower 0.1 solution of normal sodium hydroxide into the contents of the test tube until a faint pink color is obtained.
4. Calculate the amount (in millimeters) of sodium hydroxide consumed to obtain a faint pink color.
5. Multiply the result by 10 - this will be an indicator of the acidity of the milk in degrees.

Titration of milk with sodium hydroxide solution