Heat stability of concentrated skim milk as a function of heating time and temperature on a laboratory scale - Improved methodology and kinetic relationship

The destabilising effect of heat treatment on skim milk concentrated by reverse osmosis was shown to be strongly dependent on heating time and temperature. Heat-induced coagulation could be described as a function of heating time and temperature over a broad range of non-fat total solids concentration using the described test method. This improved test method in terms of a more instant and better visibility of coagulation effects can be used for a wide range of total solids. Heat stability strongly decreased as total solids content increased as a function of heating time and temperature. A clear correlation between heat stability of unconcentrated skim milk and concentrates thereof could be shown. In this case, the heat stability of unconcentrated skim milk can be used to estimate heat stability of concentrated skim milk as variation in milk composition of pooled bulk milk from a local dairy plant was seen to be low.