Occurrence and prevention of oxidized flavor in milk

The main problem before the milk industry today is that of flavors. Milk plant operators have been slow to realize this, believing that if the other two qualifications, food value and purity, are fulfilled, their work is done. The opposite is true with the consumer whose first impression of the milk is the taste and smell - this oftentimes being an important factor in determining the amount that the consumer will use.

Although much more has been done in the field of flavor research than the plant operators have knowledge of, the field is still relatively new and much work remains to be done. Each group of workers in the dairy field has its particular problem to meet. For those interested in herd management, there are the flavors due to the care of the cattle, for the bacteriologist, the effects of certain strains of organism, and for the chemist, that large group of flavors that can be attributed only to the chemical breakdown of milk. It is not possible to separate these three into distinct classes, but all are interdependent upon each other.