MILK
Milk is a usually white liquid food (but can be shades of yellow, cream, pink, or brown) produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest solid food, and contains many nutrients, including calcium and protein, as well as lactose and saturated fat; the enzyme lactase is needed to break down lactose. The first milk, colostrum, contains antibodies and other immune-modulating components that help strengthen the immune system and protect newborns against disease.
As an agricultural product, milk is collected from farm animals, mostly cattle, on a dairy. It is used by humans as a drink and as the base ingredient for a wide range of dairy products. Human ability to digest milk in adulthood depends on lactase persistence, so lactose-intolerant individuals may have difficulty digesting lactose. Milk and dairy products are consumed by more than six billion people worldwide, and dairy farming supports the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people.
Humans began consuming the milk of other mammals after the domestication of animals in the Neolithic Revolution, and over time developed a wide range of practices for processing it into products such as cream, butter, yogurt, kefir, ice cream, and cheese. In the modern era, the production, transport, and consumption of milk were transformed by industrialization, pasteurization, homogenization, refrigeration, and large-scale dairy processing. Although cow's milk dominates global production, the milk of other mammals, including goats, sheep, buffalo, horses, camels, and yaks, is also important in many regions.
In 2011, dairy farms produced around 730 million tonnes (800 million short tons) of milk from 260 million dairy cows. India is the world's largest producer of milk and the leading exporter of skimmed milk powder, while New Zealand, Germany, and the Netherlands are among the largest exporters of milk products.
冰痛
- 2022-07-30T00:00:00.000000Z
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