The technology of food decontamination, pasteurization, invented by Louis Pasteur in the nineteenth century, is now used in the food industry to its full capacity. First of all, when they talk about pasteurization, they mean pasteurized milk. Many even believe that this technique is applicable only to dairy products. But this is far from the case; pasteurization can be used for almost any liquid product. So, pasteurization of juices received the greatest distribution after milk, in particular this is characteristic of food products for children.
What is pasteurization?
This process is represented by a single heating of products of liquid consistency to a certain temperature (from sixty to ninety-eight degrees) for different times. There is an inverse proportion between pasteurization time and temperature. So the longer the disinfection time, the lower the temperature should be and vice versa.
Today, many argue that raw milk (that is, milk that has not undergone thermal and other types of processing) is harmful and it is dangerous to eat it. But is that so?
Contrary to popular belief, pasteurization is not a complete disinfection of a product, but only a partial, at best 80-90% destruction of vegetative (that is, in an active state) microorganisms. Even after pasteurization, spores of microorganisms remain in milk and other products, which, getting into the human body, become active and can lead to certain diseases. But this does not happen! Why? It's simple - for the most part, milk does not contain harmful microorganisms, and the only thing that destroys pasteurization is sour-milk bacteria, which not only can not cause diseases, but are also useful for the formation of intestinal microflora. Pasteurized milk is not neutralized milk, but rather a product with extended shelf life and sales. Of course, each company seeks to produce not perishable products, but products with extended shelf life. So the prevailing opinion in social circles about the dangers of raw milk to producers is only at hand.
And, of course, none of them will undertake to assure the population of the opposite. At such a pace, we will soon forget that our parents and grandfathers did not have pasteurized milk on the table. Everything was fresh, natural, without any treatments and additives.
Pasteurized milk today is more likely a successfully promoted brand than a panacea for some mythical diseases transmitted with this product.
During its processing, pasteurized milk not only loses microorganisms, which lead to its early souring, but also loses its most valuable properties. So during processing, vitamins, minerals, and also part of the protein, which are deposited on the heated plates of the pasteurization plant, are partially lost.
Thus, if you have doubts about which milk to consume, think about it. If you know where this fresh milk comes from, trust the person selling it, know it personally, and even better - how he cares for his animals - you have nothing to fear! In this case, there should be no doubt, and every competent person will tell you with confidence that this product is ten times more useful than its pasteurized and deodorized counterpart. Fresh milk contains a huge number of vitamins, minerals, as well as essential amino acids, which for the most part are lost during processing and, as a result, pasteurized milk cannot boast the same unique properties as a natural product.