Difference between Milk Pasteurization and Milk Homogenization

Milk plays an essential role in our diet. It is filled with a variety of vitamins and nutrients like calcium, selenium, pantothenic acid, vitamin A, and vitamin D that keep you healthy and are responsible for your growth. It’s important for us to consume processed milk and not to consume unprocessed milk. When buying processed milk, we see the choice of buying just pasteurized milk or milk that is pasteurized and homogenized. So, what makes just pasteurized milk different from homogenized milk?

The main difference between homogenized and pasteurized milk is that homogenized milk is smoother and more consistent in appearance compared to non-homogenized milk, whereas pasteurized milk is safe for human consumption because it is free from harmful bacteria and pathogens.

What is Pasteurization?

Milk pasteurization is a process where milk is heated for a specified temperature and time and quickly cooled down to kill the pathogens that might be present in it.

The temperature is increased to kill the milk spoiling and harmful bacteria i.e. Pathogens and quickly cooled down to prevent the growth of other bacteria which keep the milk healthy and edible for a long time.

For effective pasteurization, milk is usually heated up to ~ 75℃ for about 20 seconds. This process is called High-temperature short time (HTST) pasteurization. This is a very common method and this method kills the bacteria quickly. In another form of heat treatment of milk known as Ultra Pasteurization or UHT, milk is heated to ~ 145℃ and held for 4 seconds.

This UHT heating kills all the spoiling bacteria and it creates a condition in milk for being shelf-stable and needs to be cooled down to 4℃ i.e., it does not require refrigerated storage. Ultimate goal of milk pasteurization process takes place in the milk pasteurizer systems is to kill the dangerous bacteria such as E Coli, salmonella, and listeria that are responsible for causing foodborne diseases.

Benefits of Pasteurization:

Also read, How Do Milk Pasteurizers Help to Keep Milk Fresh?

What is Homogenization?

Homogenization is a unique process within the process of pasteurization. It is a mechanical process in which the milk passes through narrow orifices feed under high pressure and velocities. These orifices are designed to greatly reduce the size of fat molecules in the milk. The original size of the fat molecules in the milk will rise to the top and form a thick layer of cream.

Also, during pasteurization, some of the milk’ white cells are collected at the bottom of the vessel after heating. Homogenization helps to prevent this and redistribute all the white cells and fat molecules in the milk uniformly. It helps to preserve the milk uniformity for a more extended period and serves best to the people who do not prefer the top cream layer in their milk/tea/coffee.

People prefer either only pasteurized high-fat milk or homogenized medium or low fat toned milk. However, most of the milk distributed in the morning or available in retail shops or supermarkets go through both processes.

Benefits of Homogenization: