Assessment of Quality of Commercial UHT Milks by Chromatographic and Electrophoretic Methods

Abstract

Forty-four commercial ultra-high treatment (UHT) milks were analyzed, within the first 15 d after processing for lactulose, furosine, α-lactalbumin, and β-lactoglobulin, contents, as well as for proteolysis of caseins. Some UHT milks processed containing lactulose and β-lactoglobulin, within the limits considered acceptable, showed high levels of casein degradation. Samples considered overprocessed according to their lactulose and β-lactoglobulin contents also showed the presence of considerable amounts of para-k-casein, which could indicate a poor microbiological quality of the raw milk causing protein degradation prior to UHT processing.