What is Milk?

Do you think that plant-based milks should be labeled as something else (like "imitation milk")? Or should the labeling of these products be left alone?

I do not believe that the labeling as milk of these is wrong. just labeling them in ingredients on products for clarity such as Coconut Milk.

If the plant based "milk" contains the same elements as the mamary gland milk, then why not. If it is milk, it is milk

cheers,

ethobil

I like the FDA's stance on this, and the fact that they're staying out of this because it's more of a marketing ploy than anything else. As long as consumers can distinguish between a soy or a moo-cow product, it's milk. _{(ducks and flees to another thread)}

Hi Sue,

You are absolutely right to accept FDA's definition or stance for the word: "milk". During it looks, smells, tasts like the original and sellable to do business and making profits, all similar products can be called milk with some designation for differenciation.

Milk is a solution and/or emulsion of proteins and other organic materials from animals, plants, and created from synthetic or natural chemicals.

Personally, I don't drink milk at all, touch nothing from cow, and eat only goat feta cheese for decades.

Food, including milk must feed human beings. When business and profit is added to the product, I let it on the shelves, Gil.

_{"ducks and flees "}

I didn't know ducks and fleas gave milk. (sorry, I couldn't resist)

If the dairy industry gets its way on this, we'll have to invent some new terms, or use such expressions as:

Coconut fake milk

Artificial milkweed

Ersatz milk of magnesia

Substitute milkwater runoff from glaciers

The phony milk of human kindness

And then I couldn't milk this satire for all it's worth.

your milking this for all she's worth, and getting to a point of your trying to milk a dry cow.

I think the "milk" industry needs to step forward and start putting "cow milk" on the label. All of the other providers give this information.

If there is any the confusion it's coming from the main moovers and shakers

the industry would phase out the cows if they could just grow the gland.. then we would be back at square one again!?

Hi Je,

I remember when I was young during WWII and slowly boiled the fresh cow milk. I only took the greasy skin and let my mom do cheese from the rest. It was delicious and filling well early the morning.

Now, the milk industry probably cannot put "cow milk" on the label because many other things are added to it or the concentration is too low to be called so. In business, and I don't want to teach to the dairy industry what to do but if they cannot differenciate their product by the specific name, I let them in ignorance. Differentiation is an important part of the success or failure of a product on the market.

It's too expensive to use only the glands to produce milk. They will eliminate cow because the cow industry has majour problems for years, they will replace this whitish liquid with another but synthetic and less expensive.

I wait for the moment and will name "emulsion" or other scientific name, Gil.

For what it's worth, a brand up here in Canada once put 'natural, unsweetened' soy 'milk' on store shelves. The idea was that 'regular' soy milk was always sweetened with cane sugar ... and very sweet it was, indeed.

The stuf was disgusting to the taste. Soy 'milk' without sweetening is COOKING OIL!!! Which make sense, given that soy seeds ARE oil seeds. :-S

So soy 'milk' ... cooking oil and cane sugar; blend and stir to taste. No relation to the real thing.

Cheers!
DZ

This sounds like calling "skiing" "snow skiing". All skiing was done on snow until water skiing came along. Even then if someone said thay were going skiing you just assumed it would be on snow (especially in winter). In the summer we always called it water skiing. Of course, nowadays they ski on almost anything that works, sand, plastic chips, carpet, etc. But it's still called skiing.

Hence, If snow skiing or water skiing = skiing

Therefore, animal milk or plant milk = milk

QED?

ethobil

Here something to tilitate (sp) the milk subject.

I guess this is a food product to which the phrase "just like mamma used to make" truly applies.

Consult the Lewis Black HBO comedy special for the answer to "What is Milk" ;).

"Life is just a chair of bowlies." (Mary Engelbreit)

Hi SPECIFIER,

Your name, SPECIFIER doesn't fit to your sentences. You tell us what to do to get the final and specific definition "what is milk" but you don't "SPECIFY" a web-site. Adjust yourself for the future, Gil.

Lighten up there, "Guest". HBO is a cable television channel, not a website and Lewis Black is a comedian. Maybe you shouldn't watch it, though. It's for adults :). Is that specific enough for you?

If it works, don't fix it!

Any invitation to the government to meddle will inevitably cascade into something complex, inept and ineffective.

L.J.

This is very similar to the debate about essential oils. Essential oils are also plant extracts, but certainly are not related to petroleum type 'oil'. The irony with essential oils is that they are popular because people are trying to use them to replace or get rid of the plethora of petroleum oil based products in their life. Are the soy and almond people maybe trying to get rid of cow's milk?

The main reason the dairy industry is upset is because people buy and drink liquids prepared from soy, rice, almond, etc. Somehow they think if you just take the word "milk" away from the product name, people won't use it as much -- or maybe even won't try it. They assume the consumer is replacing cow's milk with another product with the word milk in it. I don't think they would be so exercised over the matter unless they had some data indicating this is true.

If people would investigate how dairy manufacturing facilities work (and I do mean manufacturing because it is a pretty mechanized process) they wouldn't drink as much cow's milk as they do. They may even eliminate it. Cows give milk only after being pregnant and giving birth. (Duh.) So what do the manufacturers do? They immediately take away the calves (they are for manufacturing veal, etc.) and take all the milk the cow has. This process is repeated until the cow is no longer useful in this way and then she will be slaughtered for her flesh.

I don't like cow's milk. I do eat cottage cheese. But ever since I learned how the animals are treated to get the end product, I eat less and have to say, cringe when I do.

If we want to consume animal milk, it would behoove us to find sources where the animals are treated more humanely. While not dealing with milk particularly, the film/documentary "Food, Inc." is an eye-opener to most consumers, as to where their food comes from and how.

There is a Dirty Jobs episode on milking camels.

I've found I prefer goat's milk. It tastes better, has a richer flavor, etc. After all, a goat is closer in size to a human so it would make sense to use milk that's meant to grow an animal our size rather several times our size. Of course, a cow can produce much more milk.

I've had cow's milk that tasted terrible in the past. Now I stick to strictly organic milk if I drink any milk at all. I also avoid products of corporations and try to buy local.

Check out Chris Hedges latest book "Empire of Illusion".

Great!

Empire of Illusion looks very interesting, by the way.

As long as the source is clearly stated, who cares.

BUT, that goes for putting 'from cows' on the label of 'regular' milk.

No teat No milk

What is milk? If you knew what whole raw milk was and compared it to the low fats, skim, 1% 2% milk in the stores, and know what it looked like before the artificial flavoring, coloring, thickeners, components for textures.

The question of "What is milk?" would take on a whole new meaning.

p911

Some of my family member and friends had farms and would use milk from their farm to drink, it was so delicious. So deliciously creamy and full of such flavor. It has been years since I have drunk milk like that, but if I have the chance, I will definitely be first in line with my cup!

its definitely rich. have been raised on a farm, We would draw off a glass from the bulk cooler, Very good, but not thirst quenching, always wannted more. And when the cows were testing at over 4.0. A lot of cream. When I left the farm, up until about 5 years agom I always got whole milk. as I'm pushing 50, I'm uing 2%......must not be as active.

frankly speaking the defination of milk is to determied by not only FDA but WHO and other health and farm realted approving agencies..with the content of the milk being defined on the packet as is for other packaged food products..

if the content is standardized then no need to define cow milk, soy milk etc..

i had never had milk other than cow, buffalo and goat..n i can differentiate between them according to taste,colour and odour and ofcourse other visual elements.

if anybody has tasted latex, white in colour,thick and readily coming out from rubber plantations, i must tell that they also call it milk.n its milk of plant.but they r not meant for driking.

after mothers milk, the cow milk is a proved food for everbody across the world. i remember studying in school that milk is one food which if taken continuously with vitamin c..u dont have to take any other diet and this is approved by all docs across the world,...

i remember studying in school that milk is one food which if taken continuously with vitamin c..

Don't you mean Vitamin D?

i mean vitamin c....vitamin d we continuously get from sun..cows milk has all the ingrediants neededs for the diet..n cows milk cant be replaced by synthetic milk or any other vegetative milk..

tasting latex?

anyhow.. the stuff contractors use as an additive for mortar, concrete, or grout is commonly referred to as 'liquid milk'. it look's just like .. milk! ..it's latex

This is thread addresses what is pretty much a pointless inquiry.

However, I do propose that all animal milk processors/producers be required to label milk product according to its true substance and origin: that being, modified sweat produced by what are essentially specialized (mammalian) sweat glands.

So here's a genuine question. Why is sweat (per-se) generally salty-tasting, while mammary (lactate) sweat is generally sweet tasting (leastwise, in non-carnivores)?

No.

How can anyone mistake cows milk for a soy milk substitute. First they are not displayed any where near each other it the markets. Cows milk being refrigerated and soy milk on the shelves with other goods.

As far as it meeting the definition of what milk is it seems the term can be applied to any white liquid whether man made, from an animal or secreted from a plant. Or to any liquid substance used to nourish our young as crop milk of some birds does not look anything like cows milk. The Dairy industry does not have any substance to their argument. The word is to general it it's usage and meaning.

Beg to differ - in our supermarkets, the cow's, goat's and soy milks are all displayed side by side. It's all udderly clear, as everything is well labelled, have pretty pictures of the animal or plant of origin on the side.

All those happy cows out munching green, green grass in sunny fields...

I agree that the dairy industry should quit mooaning and get on with sorting out its own byre house ...we wouldn't be drinking all these alternatives if they hadn't meddled with real milk so much. You can't get non-homogenised milk anywhere these days although I think green top (unpasteurised) is still available.

You can here there are a few specialty markets that sell it. It's been pasteurized even comes in the old glass bottles. Don't think the markets can sell it unless it pasteurized to kill bacteria for health reasons. It also increases shelf life.

In around the Chicago area there is a market that sells its. Do not recall the actual farms name, Blue Bell or something.

But the inspection, licensing and certifications horrendous. I believe the price you pay for this milk is triple.

They do sell unhomogenized milk thats organically grown also.

Whole Foods?

Whole foods if you mean unprocessed (unpasteurized/homogenized) milk, yes. one other thing its organic, which I would question.

I came across it about 9 months ago. I googled and came across this

which is the difficulties of selling raw milk. The government does not have enough legislation or regulation to cover it. I know the farmers can sell it if the customers buys it off the farms, because Farms are inspected.

p911

Whey used to be a waste by-product, because they could not separate the acid out of it.

The design of membrane for fracturization has improve so much that there really isn't anything going to waste. they are separating;

protein for baby food and other supplements

calcium for vitamins (your body is supposed absorb it better)

and other trace minerals as well.

p911

The whey seems to end up in most processed foods, including crisps and chocolate and random other things.

Time was, it was just fed to the pigs _{hmmm crackling...}

Used to be called Fillers, until they found out how to separate the values. Now its called Enhanced, Enriched, and fortified.

Thats alot of pigs, and in an area where you have alot of milk where there are fewer pig farms. in Caralina where they have high volume pig farms, but then they don't have the cows. Brings in another problem such as waste. Which you hear about after a lagoon failure.

p911

In the 70s and 80s the dairy industry in Denmark tied very closely with the pork/bacon industry (the "best" bacon you could buy in the UK then was deemed to be Danish™), with the pigs being fed the whey waste products of the butter and cheese making.

Then again, Demark is smaller than Carolina!

As a teen, I once worked in a biscuit factory. All the broken ones got sent off for pig food. Happy little pigs scoffing custard creams and all sorts. Maybe I should have said 'when I was a teen', but that would be far to clear. Cows eat grass, so milk is in fact grass. It might be sillage as well (ooh, love that sweet smell nice. It's just the pooey pong that's horrid), but I'm not sure what that's clasified as.

As a nipper, mummy used to have me and sis shake containers of milk. After half an hour of furious shaking, we got a lovely little pat of buttter. Maybe I shoud have said 'wh...... Scones (rhyme with bones) or scone (rhyme with gone), I just don't know. A rose by any other....Oh, I'll shaddup. Milk is delivered by 80% of peoples fathers (remainder being window cleaners)

One time I was given a gallon of raw milk because it was out of date. I took it home and stuck it in my refrigerator and for got about it for a month. When I opened it, it was still good. Of course it had never been allowed to get warm and had never been opened.

????

Did you shake it before you poured yourself a glass?

Yes.

Where is Kate when you need her. (couldn't find the page direct). Bunny wabbits get milked as well, not to mention snakes.

UK shelves have a stack of choices - skimmed, semi-skimmed, full-fat, 'filtered' ( I have no idea - ask the makers, Craven), Devon, Jersey, Gurnsey, condensed, homogenized. Then there's 'organic' etc. Probably been said, but goats milk is an option for some people with allergy to moo-juice.

Milk is sometimes referred to as a 'whole food' in that the young of mammalians can live off the stuff on it's own. Dunno where that leaves those odd Australian critters (Platypus, Echidna).

Think I'd run (maybe dribble) with 'milk' being a secretion.

Bunny wabbits get milked as well, not to mention snakes.

You forgot arachnids (spiders and scorpions)

Think I'd run (maybe dribble) with 'milk' being a secretion.

don't cry over spilled milk

OK, it's game-on for the strangest creature milked. So far I stick with rabbits, but will ponder this overnight. I've heard that a bath can be milked, but suspect that is an entirely different thing

I've heard that a bath can be milked, but suspect that is an entirely different thing

heres a scene from Young Frankenstein may explain it

<splarf> How about milk being defined as 'a liquid that contains prorein' ?

Organic milk is not raw milk, in fact it is pasteurized at a higher temperature. Whether it is worth the higher price is debatable. I drank raw milk until 18. It didn't seem to have any healing properties. I had mumps, two kinds of measles, chicken pox, Flu, pneumonia, and a lot of colds by that age.

I don't know if organic milk is homogenized. Some people think that homogenization is a rocket fuel for cancer. Other people have other problems with it.

No organic milk does not have to be homogenized, and all what homogenization is running it through a screen under high pressure. breaking up the fat globules.....so that it does not separate.

When I could drink milk, I always preferred "top of the milk" on my breakfast. I tasted better than the milk. Conversely, I hated it in my tea...

Fussy??

when I was on the farm and the cows were testing out at 4.3 (springtime after they freshed about 30 days) and forget to shake the jug before putting it on my cereal. it was way too rich. but loved in my coffee.