BUTTERMILK

Buttermilk is an important by-product of butter industry, which is produced when

butter is made by churning cream or whole milk curd. As a by-product, it has very
important place in dairy industry and needs proper attention for its judicious utilization.
The high nutritional value of buttermilk and increasing public awareness concerning the
environmental pollution warrants for the economic utilization of this important by-
product.

Types of Buttermilk
a) Sweet cream buttermilk

 Obtained by churning of fresh/ pasteurized cream with little or no developed acidity.

 Resembles skim milk in gross chemical composition except for their high amount of
phospholipids and milk fat globular membrane proteins and is usually admixed with
bulk of skim milk for further spray drying or even product manufacture in dairy
plants.
 The spray dried buttermilk powder is less free flowing and dusty because of high fat
content in comparison with skim milk powder.
 The high fat content reduces the shelf-life of the powder during storage.
 Sweet cream buttermilk that is produced in organized sector is preferred for
processing and utilization in different products.

b) Sour buttermilk

 A substantial amount of sour buttermilk is produced during the manufacture of

makkhan directly from fermented milk (curd).
 Obtained by churning naturally sour milk or cream.

c) Desi buttermilk (lassi)

 Obtained by churning of curd (dahi) during the manufacture of makkhan.

 Desi buttermilk is an important domestic beverage, but it is mainly produced in
unorganized sector in small and scattered quantities and is mostly utilized at domestic
level.
 Important domestic beverage in India.
 Has high nutritive and therapeutic value. It also finds its way in the preparation of a
host of items such as kadhi, dhokla and idli.
Sweet cream buttermilk V/S Skim milk

 Buttermilk contains higher fat content than skim milk, which can be reduced
to some extent by subjecting it to centrifugal separation.
 Buttermilk contains a larger proportion of protein mixture sloughed from the
fat globule-milk-serum interface by churning process.
 The amount of fat globule membrane protein (FGMP) is, however, not as
large in comparison with total buttermilk proteins. The FGMP are hydrophilic
and hydrophobic in nature and their physical properties, nitrogen content and
amino acid composition do not correspond with any other milk proteins.
These proteins exert emulsion in milk and milk products during manufacture
and storage.
 The FGMP also contributes a complex mixture of glycerophospholipids to
buttermilk.
 Sweet cream buttermilk contains about nine times higher phospholipids than
skim milk.
 Phospholipids in buttermilk do not have short chain fatty acids.
 Principal fatty acids are C16 (palmitic) and higher acids.
 Of the total phospholipid fatty acids, about 40% by wt. are saturated acids and
the rest are non-conjugated di- to penta-unsaturated acids.
 Phospholipids of buttermilk include more or less equal proportions of lecithin,
sphingomyelin and cephalin together with a small proportion of cerebrosides.
 Various physico-chemical properties of buttermilk also differ from that of
skim milk.
 These differences in physico-chemical properties of buttermilk and skim milk
provide many choices for their selective applications in dairy products
manufacture.
 Buttermilk solids possess antioxidant activity and have been suggested for use
in stabilizing food matrixes against lipid peroxidation reactions.