Contribution by dairy products to the French populations in alpha-linolenic acid intakes Data on the intake of omega-3 fatty acids of the French population covering period 1993-1999 showed it was too low, in particular for the alpha-linolenic acid, taking into account the nutritional recommendations and the important role of these fatty acids on health. This note reports these data and the characteristic of the dietary origins of the alpha-linolenic acid in France, compared with those of other countries. It is noticed that with an average alpha-linolenic acid intake of 0.6-0.8g/jour, i.e. 0.35-38% of the total energy, France and countries of the south of Europe were distinguished from the countries of the north of Europe whose consumption was until 2.2g/j. The studies SU.VI.MAX and Aquitaine indicated that the dairy products represented the prevalent vector of the alpha-linolenic acid, in the French population. Therefore dairy products contribute to 46% of the total intake of the alpha-linolenic acid, including 13.4% from cheeses, whose the alpha-linolenic acid content can depend significantly on the quality of milks from different origins.
Butter, instigator of taste Butter, a natural and symbolic food, is an essential product for grand French cuisine. Without butter, no sole meuniere, sauce au beurre blanc, beurre maitre d'hotel, sublime jus, pure butter croissants, brioches worthy of the name, no... the list is long since butter is an indispensable ingredient in cuisine and pastry-making. Acclaimed by chefs, butter is at the heard of trends, embraces the times and praises taste in a very up-to-date cuisine.
Fatty taste: a sixth gustatory modality ? Sense of taste informs the body about the quality of ingested foods. Five submodalities allowing the perception of sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami stimuli are classically depicted in Human. However, the spontaneous attraction of mammals for fatty foods raises the possibility of an additional oro-sensory modality devoted to the fat perception. During a long time, oro-sensory perception of dietary lipids was thought to take place only through textural and retronasal olfactory cues. This minireview analyses recent findings showing that the gustation can also play a significant role in the dietary lipid perception.
Role of lipids in the olfactive perception of dairy products Lipids hydrolysis leads to a large diversity of volatile compounds in dairy products. They contribute to the flavour characteristics of these products. On the one hand, the fat phase is a good solvent of the volatile compounds. It contributes to the flavour compound's retention. On the other hand, fatty acids, which result from lipolysis, are important in the aroma of dairy products. Not only are fatty acids aromatic compounds by themselves, but fatty acids also are precursors of methyl ketones, alcohols, lactones and esters. This paper is a review of current knowledge about the compounds that contribute to the flavour in dairy products. Discussed is the pathway of formation, the sensory properties, and quantities of the main volatile compounds encountered and also the important role of fat in flavour release.
Contribution of dairy products to the fat intakes of French population Daily consumption of lipids in France is relatively stable at around 79 g for adults and 68 g for children. Dairy products (milk, cheese, ultra fresh dairy products), butter and cream are among the foods contributing to lipids intake (saturated, mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated fatty acids). In adults and children, dairy products represent 17 % and 16 % respectively of total lipids intake, 25 % and 23 % of saturated fatty acids (SFA). In adults, butter and cream contribute 7 % to total lipids intake and 10 % to SFA. In children, the contribution is low, at 4 % of total lipids and 6 % of SFA. Dairy products, butter and cream are not strong vectors of total lipids. As far as their contribution to saturated fatty acids intake is concerned, finer analysis, distinguishing the different SFA, would give a better idea of their situation.
Milk fat and the Elderly While dietary lipids suffer from an exaggerated negative image, they are nevertheless necessary for health, particularly for the elderly, whose primary nutritional risk is malnutrition. Milk lipids have a diversified fatty acids composition making them particularly interesting from the nutrition viewpoint. Hence, in the French diet, they are the first source of alpha-linolenic acid, a fatty acid in the omega 3 family that plays an essential role, particularly for elderly. Milk fat provides energy and vitamins A and D, contributes to maintaining taste and appetite in the elderly, and, from a practical point of view, is particularly easy to use and to texture in food preparations. Finally, milk fat has the advantage of being associated with other essential nutrients: proteins, calcium, vitamins A and D... depending on the type of dairy product.
Commercial fate of low-fat dairy products This chapter analyses the commercial situation of low-fat dairy products in France; this situation is characterized by a wide heterogeneity between product categories, with regard to their penetration rate or their behaviour under crisis. It is illustrated by low-fat cream and butter on one side, very present and resistant in their category, as opposed to cheese. A previous analysis had produced an explanatory model based on a comparison of costs, benefits and perceived risks associated with consuming these products. The analysis of the late crisis (2006-2009) returns to this model and goes further with it when introducing two new drivers, competition between health foods and price differences. The full model explains pretty well the good behaviour of low-fat cream. Eventually several hypotheses are made to explain low-fat cheeses' weaker penetration rate.
Trends in dairy product supply Home consumption of dairy products has evolved over the past twenty years. Individuals have increased their consumption of fresh products, yoghurt in particular, and decreased their consumption of butter and milk. At the same time, they have turned to products with lower fat contents that are now easily found in supermarkets at prices that are accessible to all.
Labelling of the fat content of dairy products Gradually, dairy products with different fat contents have developed. Legislation first imposed statement on the label of any treatment having led to alteration of the fat content. Legislation then evolved towards categorization of products according to fat content.
Image of dairy fat: the health professional's point of view Food feeds the body but it also provides essential emotional nourishment to our psyche allowing us to maintain the best possible emotional homeostasis. In order to be able to benefit from the positive feelings to find comfort and calm negative feelings and stress, it is important not to be afraid of the food we eat. Restrained eaters try to avoid fat food because they think fat means fattening. The result of the efforts to avoid this kind of food is compulsive eating of too large quantities because of negative feelings such as fear of gaining weight or the guilt of haven broken the diet rules. The natural preference of fat food changes into disgust because of the beliefs about the effect of this kind of food on the weight. In order to help the patients to become able to eat appropriate quantities of fat food, they need to learn to know when they are hungry and when they have had enough and to understand that fat does not mean fattening so that this food can become pleasurable again and be eaten consciously in order to stop at the right moment.
Dairy fat in the French dietIn France, the consumption of dairy products and the type of dairy products consumed vary with age and gender. However, over the past ten years, overall consumption of dairy products has tended to decline in all population groups, with a substantial drop for milk. Dairy products are sometimes considered to be too rich in fats and saturated fatty acids. However, the dairy product mix offers a wide range of products with varying fat contents. Moreover, milk fat is a complex and interesting fat, composed of specific saturated fatty acids that have no negative impact on health.- Moreover there are a number of arguments in favor of a beneficial effect of dairy products on various pathologies. The medium and long-term impact of the decline in consumption of dairy products is yet to be determined. Dairy products are indeed the main source of calcium and are also major contributors of a number of other important micronutrients.
Diet and lipids in healthy children Nutritional needs of children are not those of adults. In infants, lipids must represent 45-50 E %, to allow optimal growth; lipid supply should be slowly decreased to the adult values (35-40 E %) to prevent growth faltering or the occurrence of fat-soluble vitamin deficiency. Therefore, full-fat cow milk products have their full place in infant and child diet. This diet must provide a balanced supply of essential fatty acids which are involved in brain maturation and the regulation of inflammation and immunity. Progresses in cattle nutrition have increased cow milk essential fatty acid content, so that they can contribute to the diet balance. In addition, cow milk lipids provide minor lipid components with functional properties, such as phospholipids or sphingolipids, which add to child maturation and immunity. So, cow milk and its derived products must be taken as complex nutritional foods, and not only as the source of fatty acids. Thus epidemiologic studies suggest that milk could have preventive effects on the onset of obesity and its metabolic complications.
Fermented Milks, Yoghurt, Fresh Cheeses and dairy desserts Yogurts and fresh dairy products are one of the most dynamic sector of the french dairy industry and represent more than twenty five percent of its turn over.The two main reasons of this demand result on the one hand from the diversity of the final products and on the other hand from the nice image they have in the view of a lot of consumers.This position is reinforced by recognized nutritional properties, in particular for yogurts as they supply not only all the milk components, but also healthy lactic acid bacteria.With regard more particularly to the fat material of fresh dairy products, purpose of this chapter, it is important to make a distinction between yogurts and other products (obviously as they are not fat-free !).In yogurts, the fat as the same composition as in raw milk, even if it is sometime possible to observe a slight increase in free fatty acids due to some possible lipolytic activity of lactic acid bacteria.Nevertheless its structure is rather different due to the homogenization process leading to smaller fat globules, finally participating in a protein network.This particular fat structure of yogurts, slightly different from the one of other fresh dairy products, might improve their digestibility.
Milk powdersMilk is extremely perishable, and yet, for a number of reasons, it has to be preserved for later consumption. The removal of water prevents the growth of micro-organisms and facilitates preservation and storage of milk constituents. Spray drying is one of the most convenient techniques for producing milk powders and for stabilising milk constituents. Before spray drying, the milk undergoes several processes (such as heat treatment, cream separation, membrane processes, vacuum evaporation and homogenisation). The chemical, physical, technological, nutritional, functional and microbiological properties of the final products are influenced by a number of factors such as operating conditions, properties of the dairy products and storage conditions. After some economic aspects, the aim of this chapter is to describe the process of spray drying of dairy products (more precisely, those enriched in milk fat) including the vacuum evaporation, the lactose crystallisation and the rehydration and to review the effect of the processes on the physico-chemical properties of the dairy powders.
Butter, cream and ice cream Technologies for preparing butter and cream evoluated slowly during many years, mainly for regulatory reasons. Dairy ice creams, as recent products, benefit of more flexibility in their composition. However, the technical improvements recently autorized opened the field of important diversifications in terms of fat contents in one way, and also in terms of composition of this fat material always exclusively from milk, in an other way. So, for better answering to consumers demand, this composition can be modulated, at the level of milk production, via animal feeding, or at the technical level, via physical processeses. That can be performed for example by anhydrous milk fat material fractionation or by specific extraction of unfavourable components. All these possibilities permit to milk industry today, to offer to consumers, a large scale of butters, creams and dairy ice creams whose making processes don't affect, or affect very few, the nutritional characteristics of the initial fat material.
