It鈥檚 almost summer, and to me that means two things: heat and ice cream. I鈥檓 honoring National Dairy Month by exploring how the frozen confection that is sugar and cow鈥檚 milk, and other food like it, works its sweet biochemical magic.
I always order my ice cream in cones 鈥 and I never contemplate what happens to the milk and its chemical constituents along the way before and after each lick. A lot happens, especially in microbial activity. Here are five fortifying facts about dairy products and microbes that are new to me and put One Health, with its links between animal, human and environmental health, on the tip of my tongue.
Micro Lesson in Microbiology
First things first: are tiny microorganisms, like bacteria and fungi, that process organic material. Knowing more about microbes tells us about (and much more) in our foods. For dairy, knowing more about microbes will help improve sanitation and handling of milk products. experts work to identify properties that boost quality of milk, an important step toward reducing malnutrition in the United States and worldwide.
1. Microbes wear multiple hats.
Not all bacteria and their associated enzymes are wiped out during the pasteurization process. The remaining bacteria are still able to cause spoilage and quality defects in dairy foods. Yet dairy carbohydrates support the growth of probiotics, and dairy foods can buffer probiotics from exposure to acidic conditions in our stomachs.
2. Microbes tag along from many sources in the dairy production path.
The cows鈥 skin, bedding and aerosols; human handlers; and the equipment and containers used to collect, store and transport milk are all likely bacterial sources.
3. Silos score one on tanker trucks for the microbial makeup of raw milk.
Environmental conditions matter for dairy microbes. The bacterial composition of raw milk stored in silos at processing plants differed from the composition inside tanker trucks used to transport milk in a recent study led by Maria Marco, a 澳门六合彩开奖结果走势图 associate professor of food science and technology. In the study, one group of silos contained microbial populations similar in makeup to the milk from tanker trucks, while another group of silos had distinct microbial populations dominated by Acinetobacter and Lactococcus bacteria. Researchers sampled raw cow鈥檚 milk from 899 tanker trucks as they arrived at two dairy processors in California鈥檚 San Joaquin Valley. They used gene sequencing to analyze the samples.
4. Dairy products and probiotics are a match made in the refrigerator.
We benefit from using technology to help manage microbial activity. Cold temperature incubation contributed to higher levels of a probiotic protein in dairy foods in another study by Maria Marco of 澳门六合彩开奖结果走势图. Marco's team of researchers wanted to know how the in our intestines. They found that 205 proteins were produced in mice either at higher levels or exclusively when the probiotic was allowed to incubate in refrigerated milk. These proteins, which were produced before the dairy was even consumed, were key to the survival of the probiotic in the digestive tract of the mice.
5. Microbes and the gut join forces for brain development.
It鈥檚 hard to resist using 鈥渇ood for thought鈥 to describe . But the emerging findings are anything but clich茅: Research has revealed that bacterial colonization of the intestine plays an important and direct role in neurological functioning 鈥 and in our understanding of psychiatric disorders from anxiety to autism.
But brain freeze from eating ice cream too quickly, that鈥檚 a different thing entirely. I should be so wise as to slowly savor my summer treat and digest more thoroughly its creamy goodness and complex role in health.
Amy Whitcomb is an editor on the web team in Strategic Communications.