Dairy products have always been the basis of nutrition, and this is quite justified: after all, they contain only natural substances that contribute to normal digestion. However, in an effort to reduce the cost of goods and give an appetizing appearance to the product, sometimes of low quality, manufacturers start all sorts of tricks, replacing animal fats with vegetable ones, adding dyes and "taste improvers". How to distinguish a fake from natural and healthy products?
The cow gives milk ...
It would seem that the manufacturer's task is to collect milk, check and process it, pour it into bags - what could be simpler? The majority of buyers are firmly convinced that there is deception here as well. “The bags contain diluted milk powder,” the housewives gossip.
natural dairy productsIn accordance with the state regulation, which came into force in 2008, only and exclusively natural product can be called milk. On the packet of powdered milk, the manufacturer is obliged to indicate that it is a "milk drink".
In one of the state laboratories, tests were carried out on milk samples from the five largest manufacturers. The result is pleasing: no extraneous additives - vegetable fats, milk powder - were found in any sample. Both well-known and small manufacturing companies supply the consumer with real natural milk.
Milk in bags can be sterilized, pasteurized and UHT. Sterilized milk is the safest to consume, since all pathogens in it are destroyed. However, during the sterilization process, beneficial bacteria also die, so that it is the most useless for the body.
During pasteurization, bacteria and substances useful for the human body are preserved to a greater extent. But pasteurized milk has two drawbacks, firstly, it quickly deteriorates, and secondly, harmful bacteria can remain in it. But UHT milk is both healthy and safe.
How Do I Pick a Good Butter?
Customers, as a rule, do not even suspect that many dairy products may not contain milk, including even powdered milk. Russian GOST allows the production of butter only by churning natural cream, without adding any additional components. Imported oil is also checked for compliance with Russian standards; a special badge on the product packaging serves as evidence of the check.
If the production uses not butter, but vegetable fats - palm or coconut oil, the product is no longer butter and is called "spread". But cunning manufacturers, thus reducing the cost of oil, will never write on the packaging that this is a spread. All sorts of advertising gimmicks are used to attract the buyer with a "tasty" name. The most varied, but excluding, word combinations "butter" are invented. According to the requirements of standardization, only a product with at least 50% fat content and produced exclusively from natural cream can be called butter.
You can determine whether you are really lucky to buy natural butter at home. The spread quickly softens at room temperature, acquires a semi-liquid consistency. A briquette with natural butter under similar conditions does not deform, the piece does not lose its shape. If you hold it in the freezer for several hours, when you try to cut it with a knife, the butter will crumble into pieces.
In general, there is nothing wrong with eating a spread if you make your choice consciously - vitamins are added to the product during production, it is less nutritious than animal butter. Worse if you get a counterfeit product, because the butter and spread are often counterfeited. The main signs of counterfeiting are too low price and poor quality of packaging.
Sour cream
Sour creamSour cream should only be produced by fermenting natural cream. But here, too, one should not be deceived. "Sour cream", "Smetanovna", and other derivatives of the main name indicate that this is not sour cream, but a product similar to it, most often made from plant components. To give a thick consistency even to natural sour cream, unscrupulous manufacturers tend to add starch and thickeners. This significantly reduces the taste of the product. At home, drip iodine on sour cream. If it contains starch, the iodine drop will turn blue. And if a sediment is found in a glass of warm water with a spoonful of sour cream diluted in it, you should know that the sour cream you bought is made using vegetable fats.
Choosing a good ice cream
The situation with ice cream is even more sad. In the production of everyone's favorite delicacy, manufacturers manage to do without milk at all. Up to a third of all products presented by manufacturers are made from vegetable oil. According to GOST, such a product cannot be called "Plombir", "Creamy" and "Milk", or simply "Ice Cream". The packaging must indicate that the product contains vegetable fat. You can identify signs of fake visually: for example, a popsicle is covered with chocolate glaze. When the icing pieces break off, the ice cream briquette quickly loses its shape.
It's easy to choose a natural product!
It may seem that real natural products cannot be found on the shelves. Butter, real milk ice cream, sour cream, and natural milk are still widely available in stores. If you want to eat only real, natural products, you should adhere to several rules when choosing.
- Carefully study the composition of the product and its description on the packaging. Try to read what is printed in the smallest letters, often there is a catch.
- Never buy cheap oil. The cost of real butter cannot be cheaper than 150 rubles per kilogram.
Real sour cream will only be called sour cream, and butter will be called butter.