New specialised milk powders for recombined and reconstituted evaporated milk

In conventional evaporated milk manufacture, the milk concentrate is in-can sterilised for production of a pourable product with the desired viscosity. When milk powders are used in evaporated milk manufacture, it is essential that the milk concentrate can withstand the sterilisation process without excessive thickening or coagulation. Powders that meet this requirement when used in these applications are termed heat-stable milk powders. Traditionally skim milk powders were screened for their suitability for recombined evaporated milk manufacture on a subjective basis which was related to the time taken for a 20% total reconstituted skim milk concentrate to coagulate or thicken at 120 degrees C. However, manufacturers of recombined evaporated milks faced intermittent problems when using powders that met this specification due to inadequate heat stability. A new generation of skim and full-cream milk powders, specialised heat-stable milk powders, has been developed for evaporated milk applications. Use of these powders in commercial recombining operations have shown that they have adequate heat stability in the manufacture of reconstituted or recombined full-cream evaporated milk.