STUDIES REGARDING QUALTITY OF POWDER MILK

M.G. Usturoi, Roxana Nicoleta Raţu, Al. Usturoi, B.V. Avarvarei

Abstract
    Powder milk is more and more utilised in food industry due to the fact that have the same nutritive value like whole milk, but the shelf life time is much longer, is almost free from microbiological point of view and present an easy way for storage/utilization. The aim of the research was to evaluate the quality of two assortments of autochthonous powder milk (whole-26% fat and skimmed-1.5% fat) by analyzing some physical-chemical indicators (acidity, solubility, as well as content in water, dry matter, fats and proteins) and microbiological (total number of germs), in according with the standard methods. Determinations showed that majority of quality indicators were between normal limits, for both categories of powder milk. For example, water content was lower with 0.66% (whole milk) and with 0.16% (skimmed milk) face to product standard, acidity was between the limits imposed by the producer and microbial charge was around 9.5 times lower than the maximum admissible value. The only problems were observed for products’ fat content (higher with 0.14-0.23% than the admissible maximum) and respectively for solubility (lower with 1.73-1.89% than the minimum indicated by standards) due, probably, to some errors during processing. The conclusion of the study was that analysed powder milk had suitable qualitative features, inclusive under microbiological aspect, fact which allows its utilisation, without any restrictions, in human nutrition.

Key words: nutrition, powder milk, standard, quality, safety