What is the difference between pasteurization and homogenization

Thanks to this higher demand, more manufacturers have either started or increased their pasteurized milk production. What is a Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger? What is a Double Tube Heat Exchanger? This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Contact Zwirner Equipment Company. Sign up for our newsletter and receive updates on new products, specials, and news. With the amount of dairy we've consumed in our lifetime, we believe it's high time we all understood what goes into our milk.

So what's the difference and why should we care? Put simply, pasteurization is intended to make milk safer and government agencies claim it doesn't reduce nutritional value, while raw milk enthusiasts disagree. Homogenization isn't meant for safety, but for rather for consistency and taste. Pasteurization is the process of heating milk up and then quickly cooling it down to eliminate certain bacteria.

For effective pasteurization, milk can be heated up to degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes, but this method isn't very common. More common is heating milk up to at least This method will keep milk fresh for two to three weeks. This processing results in a shelf life that can extend up to nine months.

Pasteurization does not kill all micro-organisms in milk, but is intended to kill some bacteria and make some enzymes inactive. Raw milk enthusiasts , on the other hand, tout Vitamin C as a benefit of unpasteurized milk, which they claim is more nutritious and contains no additives. The FDA and CDC warn against the dangers of unpasteurized milk and in some states, selling it directly to consumers is illegal.

Other states allow the sale of unpasteurized milk directly to consumers, but could have strict laws for distributing the item across states lines. Homogenization is an entirely separate process that occurs after pasteurization in most cases. The purpose of homogenization is to break down fat molecules in milk so that they resist separation. The type of pasteurization will manipulate milk for a different purpose.

With this, the shelf-life can be extended to 6 to 9 months. This type of milk is treated mechanically to ensure it has a smooth and even consistency. Its main purpose is to break the fat molecules so that they do not get separated.

When the milk is not homogenized the on the top of the fat molecules will come and a cream layer is formed. With homogenization, the heating and cooling will make the milk go through tiny holes that break the fat molecules and this way it gets suspended into the rest of the liquid.

The dairy farm owners can create uniform products from a different herd of cows and this way the milk is filtered easily and also shelf-life is increased. In this process, there is no use of additives or any type of chemical treatment is not done.