Tag: Heat treated milk

While often confused with its natural precursor, lactose, lactulose is primarily a synthetic disaccharide. Unlike most sugars readily available in nature, the food source of lactulose is largely confined to heat-treated dairy products or commercially manufactured supplements.

Lactulose, a synthetic sugar, is not naturally present in most foods and is most commonly known as a medication for constipation. However, this prebiotic substance is found in small but significant quantities in certain heat-treated dairy products and is intentionally added to a range of functional foods designed to promote digestive health.

Over 99% of milk sold in many countries, including the UK, is heat-treated to kill harmful bacteria and extend its shelf life. This process, which involves heating milk to specific temperatures for a set amount of time, is a critical step in modern dairy production that makes a safe and long-lasting product readily available. The various heat treatments, from pasteurization to UHT, differ significantly in their temperature, duration, and the resulting shelf life of the milk.

Did you know that the homogenization process was invented over a century ago in France to prevent cream separation? While homogenization itself is a mechanical process, milk you find in stores that has been homogenized is almost always also heat treated through a separate process called pasteurization.