Characteristics of sheep’s milk as raw material for the production of dairy products

The article considers the physico-chemical parameters of sheep’s milk. It is shown that sheep’s milk has a high biological and nutritional value due to the high content of protein and fat fractions. A characteristic feature of sheep’s milk is the size of fat balls. The average size is 5–7 microns and is dominant (38%), up to 3 microns – 17%, 3–5 microns – 27%, from 7 and more – 18%. It gives an opportunity to produce high-fat products based on sheep’s milk, such as butter, cream, ice cream, etc.

Sheep’s milk has a fairly high content of physiologically important fatty acids such as linoleic acid, linolenic acid and arachidonic acid. It also contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), from information sources, this fatty acid has a number of functional properties: antibacterial, immunomodulatory, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic.

The high serum protein content of lactoferrin (compared to other farm animals), which has bactericidal and immunomodulatory properties, allows the use of sheep’s milk as a raw material for obtaining an affordable target compound for pharmaceutical production and the creation of functional products based on it.

Sheep’s milk has a high carbohydrate content of about 5.1%, represented by lactose, which promotes the development of beneficial micro-organisms used in the production of dairy products based on sheep’s milk.

The mineral composition of sheep’s milk consists mainly of bioavailable calcium, which is necessary in human nutrition and for the maintenance of bone tissue.

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