Is the taste of sheep’s milk strong?
People who have not tried this type of milk often expect it to have a strong flavor because of its association with goat’s milk. However, the reality is the opposite, sheep’s milk for consumption has a mild and pleasant taste, with a slight sweet touch, as consumers themselves have recognized in various milk tastings.
In a recent quantitative study comparing cow’s milk, goat’s milk, sheep’s milk and soy beverage in relation to taste, sheep’s milk far outperformed the others.
Won’t sheep’s milk have too many calories?
Whole sheep’s milk has a high fat content, higher than that of whole cow’s milk. For this reason, and in order to avoid a caloric intake that is currently unnecessary in the Spanish population, UHT (sterilized) sheep’s milk is normally subjected to partial skimming, up to 1.6% fat, thus having a fat content similar to that of a semi-skimmed cow’s milk, which is very suitable for the vast majority of consumers.
Does the UHT sterilization process alter the nutritional content of sheep’s milk?
The UHT (Ultra-High Temperature) sterilization process consists of heating the milk rapidly to 150ºC and then cooling it to 20ºC. These temperature variations are carried out in 2.4 seconds.
Because the period of exposure to high temperatures is so short, there is minimal degradation of the product.
Is research on sheep’s milk still ongoing?
Much of the published work on this milk focuses on the fat and protein fractions. With respect to the latter, the possibilities for the formation of bioactive peptides, among other aspects, are being studied. In fat, the presence of certain fatty acids is investigated and the influence of the diets fed to the animals is assessed in order to increase some of them, such as essential fatty acids and CLA.
Although the scientific literature admits that sheep’s milk has a higher CLA isomer content than cow’s milk, it should be noted that data on sheep’s milk are scarce and almost always refer to raw milk. In addition, the variability in the contents is great since there are many factors that condition them, diet being fundamental.
Is the amount of CLA present in sheep’s milk reduced when skimmed?
CLA content per gram of fat does not change with skimming. Logically, as it is linked to the fat fraction present, reducing the fat fraction reduces the total amount of CLA.
Source: Gaza Sheep Milk Book
