NEW TYPES OF MILK ON THE WAY

What cows eat affects the taste of the milk. Maize confers a sweet and creamy taste, while clover gives the milk a slight taste of hazelnuts.

There is more to milk than milk. Although the taste is mild, there are large taste and aroma differences depending on what the cow eats. That is one of the reasons why milk changes its taste when cows go out to pasture. Now the Royal Danish Veterinary and Agricultural University (KVL) and the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences have examined how different types of feed affect the taste of the milk, so the knowledge can be exploited to develop new types of milk.

Identifying the taste of milk types
In Denmark three litres of milk cost about EUR 1.40. But perhaps people would pay more for milk if they got something extra like a special taste or nutritional combination. And this they can get, if they buy milk from cows which have been given a special feed.

“For instance, maizebased feed gives the milk a sweet and creamy taste, clover a slightly hazelnut taste, while grassbased feed confers a more sweet, boiled taste”, says Lise Wolf Frandsen from the Sensory Analysis Group at KVL. She has identified the exact taste of milk from cows given maize, hay, grass or clover based feed. There was a big difference in the number of negative taste nuances the milk samples developed after four days in the fridge. Milk from cows given clover or grass based feed started to taste slightly sour and cardboardlike, while maize based milk still was sweet and creamy.

Feelings for milk
Taste differences between milk types are however very small, and one can ask whether they have any importance for the average consumer. Lise Wolf Frandsen thinks they have. She has shown that ordinary consumers can taste the difference in milk from cows which have been given hay, grass, maize or clover based feed.

Different types of milk
So new feeding strategies can change the taste of milk so much that ordinary consumers can taste it. And if they do not like the new taste there is a danger that they will drink less milk which otherwise is a good and inexpensive calcium source for many Danes.