Skimmed milk straight from the cow
Herds of cows producing skimmed milk could soon be roaming our pastures, reports Cath O’Driscoll in Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI. Scientists in New Zealand have discovered that some cows have genes that give them a natural ability to produce skimmed milk and plan to use this information to breed herds of milkers producing only skimmed milk.
The researchers also plan to breed commercial herds producing milk with the unique characteristics required to make a butter that is spreadable straight from the fridge. They have already identified a cow, Marge, with the genes required to do this and say a commercial herd is likely by 2011. The milk is very low in saturated fats and so should be high in polyunsaturates and monounsaturated fats.
Experts say that the discovery of these rogue milkers could completely revolutionise the dairy industry. Ed Komorowski, technical director at Dairy UK says that the New Zealand approach could be used to breed cows that still produce full-fat milk but with only the good fats, which could swing things back in favour of full-fat milk. In the UK, for example, only 25% of milk sold is full fat. ‘In future if whole milk can be made to contain unsaturated fats – which are good for you – then it might mean that people change back to whole milk products. The big thing about dairy products is taste, so this would be a way of giving the benefits of taste without the disadvantage of saturated fats,’ according to Komorowski.
This may also overcome the problem of waste. ‘If you can genetically produce milk without fat then that may turn out to be a very good solution to what might later be a big disposal issue,’ says Komorowski. Producing skimmed and semi-skimmed milk means there is a lot of fat left over.
Komorowski noted, however, that although the lower-fat milk may be healthier, it will be interesting to see how much milk the cows actually produce.
The rogue cows were discovered when biotech company ViaLactia screened the range of milk compositions across the entire herd of 4m New Zealand cattle. New Zealand dairy firm Fonterra has already made milk products from Marge’s milk and they maintain the positive taste.
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Modern Milk
OH MY STARS!
It is not bad enough that they are trying to change the molecular structure of everything we injest - but now they are changing our cows. Remember that the hormones injected into these cows and the food fed to them (meat by products, etc) that can actually change the cows molecular structure are all foreign objects to the human body. It is my belief that this is one of the reason's why people gain weight while eating a "Supposedly" healthy diet. The body no longer recognizes the food due to molecular modification!
No wonder the European countries are not importing food from the US very much. They have a better quality of vegetables (all natural) and meats (all natural) than we do... We are allowing ourselves to be killed off slowly with body malfunctions in the name of science.
I for one am against this and so is my body!
Modern milk
Weston Price must be turning in his grave......
Holy Cow!
When will man learn that he cannot improve on what God created for us? I personally am skeptical that saturated fats are bad for us. Look at all the scares that have been fostered upon us over the years, only to have new research say the previous findings were all wrong.
Raw milk is actually the healthiest of all milk. Milk that has not had it's vital goodness destroyed with pasteurization, nor cows that have been fed grain they were never meant to eat. Need I mention the use of antibiotics and growth hormones?
Our food supply is becoming more tainted everyday, and frankly I fear the genetic manipulation of our food. I think we will pay a heavy price for our "improvements".
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