"Restored milk" and "modulated milk" mean unhealthy? See what the nutritionist has to say

The Lantern Festival is approaching, and the variety of New Year goods in supermarkets will usher in a small climax of procurement. As a highly nutritious representative of the least picky group in the New Year goods, milk has always been favored by people. But there are many kinds of milk on the market, not only the nutritional "new concept" is dazzling, but the price is very different. Today, we ask Yu Yongchao, a nutrition physician at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, to talk about the difference between the nutrition advertised by various milk products from the perspective of nutrition, and how to choose?

"Restored milk is not good" is a misconception

Consumers often see the words "reconstituted milk" on some milk packaging, but reconstituted milk is actually a kind of raw milk, usually not as a liquid milk product.

Reduced milk, also known as reduced milk or reduced milk, refers to the emulsion obtained after mixing dry or concentrated dairy products with water in proportion. In layman's terms, restored milk is milk made by mixing milk powder with water and reducing it. According to China's current relevant standards, restored milk can be used as the raw milk of sterilized milk, modulated milk, fermented milk and other dairy products, and it is also stipulated that "restored milk" or "restored milk" and product names should be marked on the same display page of the packaging container, and the logo words should be eye-catching, and its font size is not less than the font size of the product name, and the font height is not less than one-fifth of the height of the main display layout.

In other words, everyone sees the eye-catching word "restored milk" on the milk packaging because the state forces dairy companies to inform consumers that the raw milk of the product is not all raw milk, so as to protect the consumer's right to know and choose, rather than saying that the product type of this liquid milk is restored milk.

Why does restorative milk give a bad impression? Because it has a certain amount of nutrient loss. Compared with raw milk, the processing process of reconstituted milk is more complicated, and it must undergo at least two high-temperature treatments such as raw milk sterilization and hot spray milk powder. In this way, the nutrients in it are inevitably partially lost, the main loss is the water-soluble vitamins that are more sensitive to heat, such as vitamins B1, B2, B6, B12, etc., at the same time, the flavor of milk will also have some changes.

However, it should be noted that the loss of this water-soluble vitamin does not mean that the recovery milk is not good. From a nutritional point of view, the main purpose of drinking milk is to obtain high-quality protein and calcium, as well as fat-soluble vitamins A, D, etc., these nutrients are relatively heat-resistant, and high temperature treatment will not have much impact on its content and absorption rate. As for water-soluble vitamins, taking vitamin B2 and vitamin B12 as an example, the loss of restored milk compared with pure cow's milk is about 15%, and it is not serious.

The advantage of restorative milk is lower storage and transportation costs, allowing consumers living farther away from the source of the milk to drink more cost-effective milk.

The nutrition of the modulated milk cannot be generalized

At present, the types of liquid milk products on the market in China mainly include modulated milk, pasteurized milk and sterilized milk. As mentioned earlier, the positioning of restored milk is usually raw milk, and prepared milk often chooses restored milk as part or all of its raw milk.

According to China's modulated milk standards, the proportion of raw milk or restored milk containing raw milk or restored milk is not less than 80%. That is to say, the main nutrients such as protein and calcium in the modulated milk are at least 80% of pure milk, while the other ingredients do not exceed 20%, which may be water, sugar, nutritional enhancers and emulsifiers, thickeners, flavors and other food additives.

Some of these formulated milk products are fortified with nutrients, while others are "delicious" as a selling point. The latter has a strong flavor, but the free sugars or some food additives in them may have adverse effects on health, especially on children's growth and development, after being ingested by the human body for a long time. However, these negative impressions of health are sometimes forced to label the front of the milk product with the word "restored milk", which makes the restored milk carry an unhealthy pot.

Therefore, the nutrition of the modulated milk cannot be generalized. Considering factors such as nutrition, health and cost performance, in the face of milk marked with "restored milk" on the front of the dairy package, it is recommended that you pay attention to other information on the package. If the milk variety is sterilized milk, then the higher the proportion of raw milk in the ingredient list, the lower the proportion of restored milk, the more worth buying; if the milk variety is modulated milk, the proportion of restored milk in the ingredient list is higher than 80%, or even close to 100%, which means that nutrition is closer to pure milk, and other ingredients, especially sugar, flavors and other additives, are less or even less, it is more worth buying.

Courtesy photo: Visual China