Manufacture and Properties of Milk Powders

Abstract

The first recoded reference to the manufacture of milk powder as a method for preserving milk was by Marco Polo, who observed the use of milk powder by Mongol soldiers in the 13th Century (Hall and Hedrick, 1975). The earliest modern commercial concentrated dairy products were air-dried concentrated milk tablets, developed in 1809, and vacuum-concentrated sweetened and unsweetened condensed milks, produced by Gail Borden in 1856. The second half of the 19th Century saw the production of solidified high-total solids milk products (Caríc and Kaláb, 1987). Roller drying was introduced around 1902 and rapidly became the predominant method for producing dried dairy products, such as infant formulae.