Foods and Their Adulteration / Origin, Manufacture, and Composition of Food Products; Description of Common Adulterations, Food Standards, and National Food Laws and Regulations

by Harvey Washington Wiley

In large dairy industries the separator is practically the only method now employed for securing cream while for farm use the gravity method of standing in a cool place for twelve or twenty-four hours is the commonly practiced method.

Cream is used on the table with fruit and cereal foods and especially in beverages such as tea and coffee. It is also prescribed by physicians for certain diseases and derangement of the digestive organs where the nitrogen content of milk produces irritation and fails of digestion. Cream is not a complete food in the sense that milk is inasmuch as the other constituents of milk are less in proportion as the percentage of fat is increased, yet cream contains at least a part of all the food elements in milk, as, for example, nitrogenous constituent, principally, casein, milk, sugar, and mineral matters.

It must be remembered in this case that the fat is the variable element and as that is increased the proportion of other ingredients, necessarily, is diminished.

The most important use of cream is in the manufacture of butter.

Standards of Cream.

—The composition of cream varies with almost every sample. The standards for cream vary in different states and cities. The national standard requires 18 percent of fat.

Skimmed Milk.

—The residue which is left from the removal of cream is known as skimmed milk. Skimmed milk contains the principle part of the nitrogenous constituents of milk, the greater quantity of its sugar and a very large quantity of its mineral matter. It is still a very valuable food product, lacking only the element of fat. When eaten with nuts or other oily food skimmed milk would complete the ration and make a well balanced food. The chief prejudice against skimmed milk is that it has been so often sold for whole milk. When sold and consumed under its own name it is not a fraudulent body and is deserving of a higher place in the dietary than has been ascribed to it. In the large creameries of the country the skimmed milk is usually fed to animals. It is one of the most highly esteemed foods for pigs and poultry, and is largely used for those purposes.

Composition of Skimmed Milk.

—Naturally the composition of skimmed milk would be that of milk corrected for the abstraction of fat. It contains some little fat when prepared by the gravity method and only a very small portion when separated mechanically. The abstraction of the fat increases the relative proportions of sugar and casein.