Fresh milk contains a lot of bacteria and must be disinfected before drinking.
Pasteurized milk is sterilized at low temperature (for example, at 72 ~ 76℃ for 0/5 second), which can't kill all bacteria, let alone bacterial spores, so it must be refrigerated, otherwise the spores will resume growth and reproduction, which will make the milk deteriorate quickly. The shelf life is also relatively short, ranging from a few days to two weeks. However, pasteurized milk preserves the nutritional value, taste and flavor of milk to the greatest extent, so it is called fresh milk.
It is not impossible to adulterate fresh milk, but it is not easy to confuse the fake with the real. Although melamine, which is used to pretend to be protein, has no taste, it can only make the adulterated milk meet the standard in protein content. In order to make the fat content and specific gravity meet the standard, counterfeiters have to add other substances such as vegetable oil and thickener, which will make the milk have an odor. Adding milk essence can cover up the odor, but it will make the milk taste too fragrant-fresh milk has only a faint fragrance and a little smell. Therefore, although adulterated milk can fool the testing instrument, it is difficult to fool the consumer's mouth (of course, if the consumer has never drunk real fresh milk, it is another matter). This may be why pasteurized milk has not been found to contain melamine in this inspection.
The non-fermented liquid milk in the American market is basically pasteurized milk, and everyone drinks this milk every day. But China is not. Pasteurized milk is rarely sold in the China market. Usually, everyone drinks ultra-high temperature sterilized milk, which is rare in the American market and has the largest output in China. During production, milk is heated to135 ~150℃ for 4 ~15 seconds, and then aseptic packaging is carried out. As a result, bacteria and spores are completely killed and can be stored at room temperature (so it is called "normal temperature milk" and the packaging is written as "pure milk"). The shelf life can be as long as one month to several months depending on the packaging. After ultra-high temperature sterilization, milk loses a lot of vitamins, and loses its unique taste and flavor, even because of the coking of lactose. For this reason, manufacturers often add essence to create the fragrance of milk.
Therefore, normal temperature milk does not require high quality of milk. In fact, domestic normal temperature milk used to be mostly so-called "reconstituted milk". Its raw material was not fresh milk, but blended with imported skim milk powder, butter and water. Although the country requires that recovered milk must be marked on the packaging, most products are not marked. Drinking reconstituted milk is not as good as drinking milk powder yourself, which saves money and avoids eating butter that is not good for health. In recent one or two years, due to the substantial price increase of imported milk powder, it is unprofitable to restore milk and switch to fresh milk production, which leads to the shortage of domestic milk sources. Recycled milk (expired milk), inferior milk and adulterated milk are all used to produce normal temperature milk, which is difficult for consumers to distinguish anyway.
Many people in China suffer from severe lactose intolerance. The lactose in milk will make them indigestion and diarrhea, and it is not suitable for drinking fresh milk. Lactose in yogurt is decomposed by lactic acid bacteria, so there is no such problem. If yogurt is produced with fresh milk, the quality of raw materials is very high, otherwise lactic acid bacteria cannot survive. Inferior milk and adulterated milk can't make delicious yogurt. Flavored yogurt (such as flavored yogurt) masks the quality of yogurt, and may also add essence. So you should drink plain yogurt. If you like fruity yogurt, you might as well buy original yogurt and add fruit. However, many yoghurts in China are now made of reconstituted milk, and not all of them are marked.
As a kind of food, the basic principle of milk is that the closer it is to fresh food, the less seasoning and processing links, the higher the quality of raw materials, and the less likely it is to be adulterated. According to domestic dairy sources, the common practice is that the best raw milk is used to produce fresh milk and yogurt, followed by milk powder and normal temperature milk, then colored milk (breakfast milk, peanut milk, strawberry milk, etc.), then milk beverage, and finally industrial milk powder (used for cakes, sweets, etc.).
Buy milk to avoid both low-end products and high-end products. The cost of milk is basically fixed, and the profit margin is small. Low price and price reduction often mean inferior quality and adulteration. High-end products need intensive advertising, and advertising costs account for most of their costs. All the benefits claimed by high-end products are deceptive or unworthy. For example, the so-called high protein content is actually the addition of milk powder; The so-called high calcium is actually less than10% higher than ordinary fresh milk; The so-called immune protein, colostrum, "osteogenic protein" and so on have no special value.
As for those brands that have been found to have produced adulterated products and had a criminal record of counterfeiting, it shows that there are problems in their professional ethics, business philosophy or management. Never trust them again. It is safest to stay away from all their products.