Butter is a healthy natural product that acts as an additional source of energy for the human body. Some perceive a yellow or cream shade as an indicator of quality, others with suspicion: where did the yellowness come from in the product, which is made from white raw materials? To answer this question, you need to figure out what kind of product it is and how it is made.
What is butter made of?
Butter is obtained by churning (separating) selected milk cream. The raw materials come from the milk of a cow, or other large, small cattle. The level of milk fat varies between 50 - 82.5%. In ghee, this figure increases to 99%. The main regulatory document governing product quality criteria is GOST 32261-2013. Vegetable oils in its composition indicate that this is a spread.
Interesting fact: according to Russian norms and standards, butter is made from fermented or cream cream, which have a different proportion of fat. Accordingly, varieties identical in nutritional properties, but excellent in organoleptic qualities, will be obtained.
What gives the oil color?
High-quality butter has a delicate cream shade. This color is given by the carotenoids contained in it - orange pigments, which, when ingested, are converted to vitamin A.
Approximate carotene content per 100 g of product:
- in whole milk 7.0 microns;
- in butter 193 microns.
In milk, the carotene-containing substance has the form of droplets with a diameter of 3-4 microns, enclosed in the thinnest protein-lecithin shell. The appearance of the liquid looks whitish due to the scattering of light on the surface of the droplets. The same effect can be observed by blotting out the yolk of an egg in an aqueous medium.
Interesting fact: The steps for making butter are carved on stone tablets found by archaeologists in the former Mesopotamia. They date back to 2500 BC. Oil is found in the fifth century trade records of the Irish. In the product list of Norwegian travelers, butter in barrels was mentioned in the 8th century. In Italy and Russia, this product began to be used in food around the 13th century.
The proportion of fat and, accordingly, carotene-containing emulsion in butter is higher than in milk. Carotene drops merge, a yellow-orange pigment appears in the product. Ghee, which is pure milk fat, has a bright yellow color.
Can I choose oil by color?
From milk with a high content of carotene, butter is more vivid in color. It is logical that a cow on summer feed will receive more carotene-containing feed. Intensive yellowness can give food coloring. This is permitted by regulatory documents of quality.
Saturated yellowness may indicate the following product qualities:
- high carotene content;
- high fat content;
- food coloring additives.
Therefore, choosing oil, focusing on color, is not worth it.
Interesting fact: easy to determine the quality of the oil experimentally. Place a small piece in the freezer for an hour. Gently cut the knife with real oil does not work, it will crumble. Frozen spread can be freely cut into plates.
Butter has a yellow tint due to the concentrated carotene pigment content of orange-yellow. In milk, it is in the form of individual rare drops in white shells and is not visible. In the fatty fraction isolated from cream by churning or separation, the carotene-containing pigments merge with each other and give the product a yellow color.
