BUTTER HISTORY AND

PROCESSING
NAME: MEHREEN JABEEN

CLASS: BS 4TH YEAR 2021

SEAT #: EP-1855023

COURSE INCHARGE: DR SYED MUHAMMAD

GUFRAN SAEED

COURSE #: FST-

COURSE TITLE: FASTS AND OIL ASSIGNMENT

DEPARTMENT: FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI
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INDEX
s. no CONTENT Page no
01 BUTTER HISTORY
I INTRODUCTION 3-4
II HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 4-5
III CLASSIFICATION OF BUTTER 5-6
02 INDUSTRIAL BUTTER MAKING 6
I CHURNING METHOD OF BUTTER MANUFACTURE 6-8
II PRETREATMENT OF THE CREAM PRIOR TO CHURNING 8
03 FLOW DIAGRAM 9
04 MANUFACTURING PROCESS 10
I PASTEURIZATION 10
II VACREATION 10-11
III COOLING 11
05 BUTTER FROM SWEET CREAM 11
06 RIPENED CREAM BUTTER 11-12
07 CONTINUOUS BUTTER MAKING 12
I CREAM FEED TO THECONTINUOUS BUTTER MAKING 13
II FRITZ PROCESS OF CONTINUOUS BUTTER MAKING 14
08 PROCESSING VARIABLES 15
I MACHINE VARIABLES 15
II CREAM VARIABLES 15-16
09 PACKAGING OF BUTTER 16-17
BUTTER HISTORY:

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INTRODUCTION:
Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk.
Conversion of milk fat into butter is a very old way of preserving milk fat. Butter
accounts for a major portion of the nutritive value of milk. Butter is generally used
as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking,
sauce making, and pan frying. Butter consists of butterfat, water, and milk proteins.
Most frequently made from cow milk, butter can also be manufactured from the
milk of other mammals, including sheep, goats, buffalo, camels, and yaks. The
most dominant source for production of butter today is bovine milk. Throughout
the centuries, butter was manufactured at farms in small quantities with
considerable variation in quality. In the nineteenth century, industrial production of
the butter started through centralization and mechanization, which resulted in
substantial improvement in the quality of butter. The largest butter-producing
countries are the United States, Germany, France, New Zealand, and Russia.
According to the Codex Alimentarius Commission under the joint FAO/WHO
Food Standards Programme, butter is a fatty product derived exclusively from
milk. A 100 g portion of butter must contain a minimum of 80 g fat and a
maximum of 16 g water and nonfat milk solids. According to the USDA, one
tablespoon of butter (14 g/ 0.5 oz) produces 420 kJ (100 kcal), all from fat, 11 g
(0.4 oz) of which 7 g (0.25 oz) are saturated fats and 30 mg (0.46 g) are
cholesterol. In other words, butter consists mostly of saturated fat and is a
significant source of dietary cholesterol. For these reasons, butter has been
generally considered to be a contributor to health problems, especially heart
disease. For many years, vegetable margarine was recommended as a substitute,
because it is higher in unsaturated fat and contains little or no cholesterol. In recent
decades, though, it has become accepted that the trans fatty acids contained in
partially hydrogenated oils used in typical margarines significantly raise
undesirable low-density-lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels as well. Trans-fat free
margarines have since been developed. Proponents of the consumption of organic
butter, such as the nutritionist Mary Enig, state that, because butter is nutritious
and ‘is rich in short and medium chain fatty acids,’ this can have a positive effect
on health and prevent disease. Butter contains only traces of lactose, so moderate
consumption of butter is not a problem for lactose intolerant people. People with

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milk allergies need to avoid butter, which contains enough of the allergy-causing
proteins to cause reactions. Butter can play a useful role in dieting by providing
satiety. A small amount added to low fat foods such as vegetables may stave off
feelings of hunger.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
The art of butter making has a long history. In India, ghee has been a symbol of
purity and an offering to the Gods – especially Agni, the Hindu God of fire – for
more than 3000 years. References to ghee’s sacred nature appear numerous times
in the Rig Veda, circa 1500–1200 BCE. The tale of the Lord Krishna during his
childhood stealing butter remains a popular children’s story in India today. Since
India’s prehistory, ghee made from butter has been both a staple food and used for
ceremonial purposes such as fueling holy lamps and during funeral prayer.
Manufacture of creamery butter has been confined to the ‘colder’ regions of the
world, where gravity creaming has been successful. References to butter are found
in the Old Testament. In the past, butter was an article of commerce and a sign of
wealth. Up to the middle of the nineteenth century, factory butter making was
unknown. Most of the butter was made on the farm from cream obtained by gravity
creaming. The cream was decanted into a wooden churn and subjected to shear and
mild aeration with the help of a stirrer or by rotating the vessel. Once the fat
formed clumps, butter milk was removed and the fatty mass gathered and excess
moisture removed. This process hardly met modern hygiene standards. In most
cases, cream gets soured before converted into butter. The wooden churns were
extremely difficult to keep clean. Lack of refrigeration would lead to swift growth
and proliferation of putrefactive organisms. Addition of common salt to the butter
grains prior to working was the only preservation methods available in those days.
The presence of significant quantities of lactic acid from the sour cream would
have contributed to the subsequent preservation of the butter. Butter has also been
stored in containers immersed in peat swamps, taking advantage of the lower
temperature and virtually anaerobic conditions. An ancient method of butter
making, still used today in parts of Africa and the Near East, involves a goat skin
half filled with milk, and inflated with air before being sealed. The skin is then
hung with ropes on a tripod of sticks, and rocked until the movement leads to the

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formation of butter. The late nineteenth century witnessed the inventions of

mechanical cream separators and mechanical refrigeration. The advantages of heat
treatment to improve the keeping quality of dairy products were soon realized. This
led to the establishment of creameries, where milk was separated, and the
availability of larger quantities of cream led to the mechanization of butter making.
Initially, the churns were of wooden construction, essentially a scale-up of the
barrels used for hand production, but then were slowly replaced by aluminum and
then stainless steel until the technology was overtaken in the second half of the
twentieth century by the development of continuous butter making processes. By
the beginning of the twenty-first century, batch churning had been replaced in
dairies by continuous churning processes.

CLASSIFICATION OF BUTTER:
Many types of butter are found in the market. These differ with the type of cream
from which they are made and with variations in the manufacturing process.
Unless specifically mentioned, the different kinds of butter may or may not have
been salted. A brief description of several kinds of butter is as follows:

• Pasteurized cream butter: Usually made from pasteurized sweet cream. Such
butter has a milder flavor than that made from similar cream not pasteurized.

• Ripened cream butter: Made from cream in which a pleasant delicate aroma has
been developed before churning by ripening (i.e., inoculating the cream with a
lactic culture and holding it at a desired temperature). Properly made, ripened
cream butter has a delicate flavor.

• Unripened cream butter: Made from unripened cream. The flavor of such butter is
usually mild.

• Salted butter: Butter to which salt has been added.

• Unsalted butter: Contains no added salt.

• Sweet cream butter: In this case, the acidity of the churned cream does not
exceed 0.20%.

• Sour cream butter: Made from cream which has more than 0.20% acidity.

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• Fresh butter: Such butter has not undergone cold storage. (Usually, fresh butter is
not kept for more than 3 weeks.)

• Cold storage butter: This butter has been stored at a temperature of about 18 C (0
F) for some time. (Generally cold storage butter is from 1 to 6 months old when
offered for retail trade.)

• Dairy butter (USA): This is butter made on a farm. It is usually made from
unpasteurized sour cream, which has not been standardized for acidity. This butter
generally has a sour flavor due to the high acid content of the cream.

• Creamery butter: This is butter made in a creamery or dairy factory. It is more

uniform in quality than ‘dairy butter.

INDUSTRIAL BUTTER MAKING:

There are two completely different methods for manufacturing butter. These are
the churning method and the emulsification method. In the churning method,
crystallization of the fat takes place in cream, followed by a phase inversion in
which the oil-in-water emulsion of the cream is turned into a waterin-oil emulsion
by strong mechanical treatment. The fat content is then concentrated by draining
off the buttermilk. The butter is finally plasticized by mechanical working. In the
emulsification method, the aforesaid first three subprocesses are carried out in
reverse order. First, the fat emulsion is concentrated to a fat content corresponding
to the composition of the final product, then a phase inversion is carried out
followed by crystallization, and finally a coherent fat mass is formed and
plasticized.

CHURNING METHOD OF BUTTER MANUFACTURE:

The basic principle of the churning method is that air is mixed into cream where it
forms foam. Simultaneously, some of the fat globule membranes are disrupted
leading to liquid fat being squeezed out of the damaged fat globules and spread at
the interface of the foam making fat globules stick to the lamella of the foam. By
further agitation, the foam collapses, and the fat globules are forced so closely
together that they coalesce into small lumps. These lumps are further pressed into

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small butter granules. A batch-type butter churn may vary in capacity from a few
liters to a maximum of about 45 000 l. These churns were originally made of wood
but later were replaced with stainless steel. After cleaning and disinfecting the
churn, it must be specially prepared to prevent the butter from sticking to the
surface. With wooden churns, this is achieved by scalding with boiling water and
immediately cooling with chilled water. This treatment leaves a film of water on
the surface of the wood and prevents the butter from adhering to it. All wooden
equipment must be kept wet until used. Batch butter churns may be barrel or cone
shaped with fixed or rotating internal ‘workers.’ As the churn is rotated, the
combined actions of rotating and beating cause the cream to break, forming the
butter grains (fatty phase) and buttermilk (aqueous phase). During the first few
turns, gases (e.g., carbon dioxide from heterofermentative fermentation) may be
liberated from the cream. In order to maintain an even pressure within the churn, it
is necessary to release these gases. This is done by depressing a small valve in the
lid of the churn. Each churn has an indicator glass to see what is happening inside
the churn. When hand churning, the cream feels heavier when it begins to thicken.
This takes about 15–20 min from the beginning of churning. The cream breaks and
forms small grains of butter which are clearly seen on the indicator glass. The
actual size of the butter grains varies according to the type and size of the churn.
For hand churning, the grains should be kept small, approximately 3 mm in
diameter – traditionally stated as the size of wheat grains. Chilled water at
approximately 5 C is used to harden and control the size of these grains, as well as
to remove the traces of buttermilk. Washing reduces the yield and is not necessary
if the cream is of good quality and all the necessary hygienic precautions have
been observed. Traditionally, well washed butter will have a longer shelf life than
unwashed and overworked butter. Salt may be added dry or in the form of brine as
a final wash. The addition of brine (10% solution) to butter grains has been used to
reduce the need for chilled water. This can be important during warm weather
when there is a lack of chilled water. It prevents streakiness due to uneven mixing
of the salt. The butter grains are ‘worked’ to expel excess moisture, create an even,
fine distribution of water droplets, and produce a close textured, evenly colored
product. During the period of working, drainage, and addition of dry salt, samples
are tested to determine the salt and moisture contents. The operator determines the
‘end-point’ of working when the moisture content is between 15.5% and 16% and

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by visual assessment of the butter. At this stage, the butter is removed from the
churn in readiness for packing. The moisture content of butter must not exceed the
legal maximum limit of 16%. Manufacturers attempt to be as near that limit as
possible to ensure the maximum yield.

PRETREATMENT OF THE CREAM PRIOR TO CHURNING:

It is necessary to concentrate the emulsion in milk to a fat content of about 35–42
g/100 g or even higher in a centrifugal separator. The cream is heated to 85–110 C
for 10–30 s in a plate heat exchanger in order to kill any pathogens and to reduce
the load of spoilage-type microorganisms. It is possible to combine high
temperature-short-time (HTST) treatment with vacuum deodorization, which is
termed as vacreation. A vacuum chamber could be inserted after the heating unit in
the machine. Such treatment might have a fine effect on the flavor of the butter, for
instance, if flavors originating from feeding of the cows occur. The system is
mainly used in countries where dairy cows fed on pasture with strong tasting
weeds, which cause off-flavors in the milk. The cream is cooled immediately after
heat treatment as churning is impossible unless the milk fat is solidified. In one
cooling procedure, the cream is cooled directly to a low temperature (4–5 C), kept
overnight, and then churned. This treatment results in formation of mixed fat
crystals, also called corn crystals, in which a considerable part of the low melting
triacylglycerols, due to the fast cooling, is trapped in a crystal lattice formed by
high-melting triacylglycerols. Butter churned from such cream will have a lower
fat content and, therefore, a very firm consistency and rather poor spreadability.
When milk is converted to butter, four basic main changes – concentration,
crystallization, phase inversion, and plasticizing – are necessary.

FLOW DIAGRAM:

Receiving milk Grading Receiving cream

Weighing
Preheating (30-40 sampling
C)
Testing
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Neautralization

Separation

Cream

Pasteurization
Cooling 20-
22 C)
Cooling (5-10 C)

Ripening 20-
22 C)

Ageing (5-10 C)

Churning

Washing

Salting & working

Packaging &
storage (-23 to
-29C)

MANUFACTURING PROCESS:
The cream treatment has a strong effect on both the butter making performance
and the quality of the butter. It is performed in four main stages, namely
pasteurization, vacreation, cooling, and microbial and/or physical cream ripening.

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PASTEURIZATION:
Cream is separated from milk by centrifugation. Normally, the raw milk is
preheated to above 40 C to ensure that all of the fat is in a liquid state so that the
milk-fat globules are less susceptible to shear damage. The optimum temperature
for separation is 63 C, higher temperatures causing denaturation of whey proteins
which, though not critical for butter making, may adversely affect the properties of
the skimmed milk. For batch churning the cream may be separated at 35 or up to
40 g fat 100 g1 , while for continuous butter makers the fat content is normally 40–
48 g fat 100 g1 , depending on the particular machine. In order to kill pathogens
and technologically harmful microorganisms, as well as to inactivate lipolytic and
proteolytic enzymes, the cream is heated to 85–110 C for 10–30 s. A few very
small manufacturers may batch pasteurize the cream at 63–66 C for a minimum of
30 min. The minimum treatment is at 72 C for 15 s, though most use a slightly
more severe treatment, such as at 74–76 C for 15 s as a common practice when
using the HTST treatment. Specially designed plate heat exchangers may be used
to minimize physical damage to the fat globules. Severe heat treatments should be
avoided to minimize the generation of a cooked flavor and to minimize the uptake
of copper onto the fat globule membrane from the serum.

VACREATION:
This process is applied when there are problems with taints in the milk, whether
from pasture weeds consumed by the cattle or as a result of storage problems, and
further treatment is needed. Undesirable flavors arising from microbial action,
from high-temperature pasteurization, from the feed of the cows, or from
unpleasant aromas in the milking shed, are removed. A vacreator is used for
multistage vacuum treatment of cream. This equipment has now been replaced by
spinning cone evaporators in which the volatile compounds are removed from a
thin film under vacuum. Where less severe flavor problems may occur, the cream
is heated to 90 C, then flash cooled by spraying into a chamber where a pressure of
20 kPa is maintained. The loss of water on cooling is accompanied by reduction in
any other volatile component. However, this treatment also has drawbacks
regarding butter yield and basal moisture content.

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COOLING:
Following the pasteurization/vacreation stage, the cream is shock-cooled to 6–8 C.
However, if cultured cream butter from a very ‘soft’ cream (pasture feeding) is to
be produced, cooling occurs at about 20 C. Then, the cream undergoes physical
and/or microbial ripening.

BUTTER FROM SWEET CREAM:

Sweet cream for butter making is potentially the simplest to prepare. The hot
cream should be cooled as quickly as possible, usually within the plate heat
exchanger used for pasteurization. Milk fat contains a very wide range of fatty
acids, and hence triglycerides, crystallizing as a mixture of predominantly a- and b-
crystals. The continuing crystallization releases more heat, mainly within 2 h from
cooling, and causes the cream to warm by about 2 C. The extent of the
crystallization will depend on the temperature and on the composition of the fat.
Ideally, the cream should be cooled from 4 to 5 C immediately after pasteurization,
so that even with the release of the remaining latent heat the temperature should
remain below 7 C. When this is not possible, additional cooling should be
provided, either by cooling pads on the tank wall or by circulation through an
external heat exchanger. The cooled cream should be held for at least 4 h before
butter making to permit adequate crystallization – at least 50% of the milk fat
should be crystalline. Overnight aging is the preferred approach when butter
making is carried out on a single shift.

RIPENED CREAM BUTTER:

The mechanization of butter making, particularly the introduction of pasteurization
and adequate refrigeration, prevented the development of acidity and associated
fermented flavors in the cream. In many markets, these flavors are highly desired
and steps were taken to reintroduce an appropriate microflora and carry out a
controlled fermentation. Pasteurization conditions were usually more severe than
for sweet cream; for example, 90–95 C for 15 s or 105–110 C with no hold. The
increased protein denaturation reduces the redox potential, aiding growth of the
culture. Cooling is limited to about 20 C, with a typical fermentation time of 12–18

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h depending on the activity of the starter. The culture normally consists of a

mixture of mesophilic lactic acid bacterial strains of Lactococcus lactis subsp.
lactis and Lac. lactis subsp. cremoris providing lactic acid while citrate positive
strains of Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis biovar diacetylactis produce flavor
compounds, predominantly diacetyl and its precursor, acetoin. The inclusion of
Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. cremoris or Leu. mesenteroides subsp.
citrovorum increases diacetyl production while avoiding a yogurt-like flavor by
reducing acetaldehyde to ethanol. The fermentation must progress to a pH below
5.3 for the generation of diacetyl. The physical ripening of the cream was
originally developed in Scandinavia (Alnarp method) and it helps to optimize the
consistency of butter. This process lasts several hours and includes a sequence of
hot/cold levels (e.g., ‘cold–warm–cold’ or ‘warm–cold–cold’). Without this
procedure, the butter would often be too firm or sometimes too soft and tend to oil
off, according to the largely varying milk fat composition. The basal moisture
content and the fat losses in the buttermilk can also be influenced by physical
cream ripening.

CONTINUOUS BUTTER MAKING:

Continuous butter making machines began to be widely used in the 1960s. These
were so successful that, within a decade, most of the batch churns used in creamery
manufacture had been superseded. The important advantages of these machines are
better hygiene, and control of quality and process efficiency was constantly
improved. In the past 55 years, the Fritz method of continuous butter making has
become the leading technology in Western Europe and many other countries. This
method is based on similar steps to that of the traditional batch method, but
converts relatively small quantities (at any point of time) at a much higher rate,
creating the potential for greater production capacity and process control. This
method gives an hourly output of 5 tonnes and a production of more than 10 tonnes
per hour is even possible.

CREAM FEED TO THECONTINUOUS BUTTER MAKING:

So as to operate optimally with a minimum of corrective action, the continuous
butter making machine must be supplied with a consistent feed. It requires cream

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of consistent composition (fat, pH), physical characteristics (viscosity, degree of

fat crystallization), temperature, and feed rate throughout the working schedule.
These requirements can be met by bulking together the cream for a day’s
production schedule in a single silo. The cream can then be supplied within 0.5%
to the machine by a programmable-logic-control (PLC)-controlled, variable speed
pump. The pipelines should be designed and constructed to ensure that the pump is
neither starved nor receives excessive shear exerted on the cream during transfer.
Flow rates of 0.2–0.4 m s1 are satisfactory for sweet cream with slightly lower
rates needed for cultured creams, depending on viscosity. The most appropriate
aging temperature is often lower than the optimum temperature for destabilization
of the cream in the machine. It is expensive to introduce that energy by mechanical
action. This drawback can be corrected by passing the cream through a preheater
using warm water as the heating medium. Small temperature differentials of 1–2 C
should be employed to minimize the risk of overheating. The cream outlet
temperature should be controlled within 0.25 C of the target temperature. This
temperature will vary with the fatty acid profile in the cream. Higher temperatures
are needed in the winter to compensate for the greater proportion of saturated fat,
so that the temperature will approach that needed for 50% of the fat in the globules
to be in the liquid state. There is also a tendency for the cream feed temperature to
be lowered with increasing fat content. As a general rule, all handling of cream
prior to butter making should avoid damage to the milk-fat globules, because
damaged fat globules will tend to agglomerate and may block the pipelines.
However, controlled destabilization has been used in the past as a pretreatment
immediately before the machine to increase its production capacity.

FRITZ PROCESS OF CONTINUOUS BUTTER MAKING:

The GEA Ahlborn (Germany), the Continab (Simon Freres, France), the Pasilac
(Denmark), and the Westfalia (Germany) are the major manufacturers of
continuous butter making machines. Although the design features vary with some
minor differences, the basic principles remain the same. The butter maker consists

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of: (1) the beating section, (2) churning section, and (3) the working section. The
basic sequence of operations in the Fritz process starts with the feeding of the
cream into the churning cylinder. Due to the rapidly rotating beaters (about 1000
rpm) in the cylinder, this process only lasts a few seconds. Buttermilk and granules
drop into the subsequent separating section. This consists of a rotating cylinder
(35–42 rpm) in which after-churning takes place first, that is, the granules are built
up in size. Most of the buttermilk is drained off at that stage. Chilled water
circulates in the jackets of the churning sections to minimize the temperature rise
in the butter. The butter granules then drop through a slide into the first working
section from where they are moved with parallel contra rotating augers and start to
form a continuous mass, which is forced through a series of plates with orifices.
On the downstream side of the plates, cruciform beaters contribute to the working
and flow of the butter mass. There are flutes in the auger sections to assist draining
of the buttermilk. The degree of working is controlled by the speed drive and the
pitch angle of the beater. At the end of the first working section, salt is added, if
required, as a slurry of 40–60% salt through 1–3 injection points close to the final
orifice plate. If indirectly cultured butter is to be made, lactic starter cultures, acid,
and flavor concentrates are injected at the same points. In this case, the remaining
moisture content at these points (the basal moisture content) must not be higher
than 13.5%; otherwise, the common maximum permitted water level of 16% could
be exceeded when adding the culture concentrate. For this reason, the first kneader
operating at low shear rates presses as much of the residual buttermilk out as
possible. Before entering the second working section the butter mass is
‘evacuated,’ that is, exposed to a reduced pressure of 25–60 kPa, whereby its air
content falls from approximately 4–7% (v/v) to approximately 0.1–0.5%. This
helps avoid laminations in bulk butter and confers a smooth though firmer texture
to it, which is said to be appreciated by the consumers.

PROCESSING VARIABLES:
Butter yield and its properties, such as consistency, moisture content, and oiling-
off, are affected by numerous interrelated process variables. These include the
following.

MACHINE VARIABLES:

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Machine variables include the beater speed, first kneader speed, second kneader
speed, and reduced pressure at vacreation, as summarized here. There is an
optimum beater speed at which the moisture content is minimum. Higher speeds
result in ‘overchurning’ and speeds below the optimum result in the butter
moisture content causing ‘underchurning.’ Both overchurning and underchurning
soften the butter mass, which in turn affects the working efficiency. As the speed
of the kneaders is decreased, the time for draining the buttermilk from the butter
mass is extended and the butter moisture falls. In order to have the option of
canceling this effect for the second kneader, a drain cock at its bottom side can be
closed. Because it is generally easier to achieve low moisture content in a hard than
in a soft fat, the temperature of the first kneader is reduced by injecting cooled
water or buttermilk. The kneader configuration influences the amount of working
given to the butter, which in turn affects the sizes of water droplets. A significant
fraction of too large moisture droplets (diameter >10 mm) allows microbial growth
and affects the storage quality of the butter.

CREAM VARIABLES:
Cream variables include fat content, fat composition, the cooling regime, and the
salt content in cultured cream. High cream fat contents are desirable because of
higher butter yields (about 0.2% fat losses in the buttermilk vs. 0.05% in the skim
milk) and the lower incidence of off-flavors. On the other hand, achievement of
correct moisture content (which also depends on the process variables) relates to
the fat in the cream, often at about 40–42%. At lower fat levels, the energy demand
may exceed the motor capacity, and the butter tends to be underchurned. If the fat
content is higher, it is difficult to reduce power to the level required, and the butter
tends to be overchurned. Proper destabilization and agglomeration of the fat occur
at an optimum solid-to-liquid fat ratio. At too high or too low values of this ratio,
higher beater speeds must be used. More moisture is beaten into the butter, and
more fat is lost in the buttermilk. Hence, there is also an optimum cream
temperature in the range of 8–14 C yielding both minimum basal moisture content
and minimum fat losses. However, oxidative (e.g., fishy) flavors arising at higher
temperatures must also be considered. The optimum cream temperature, in its turn,
is influenced by the way it has been attained, that is, by the previous temperature

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treatment. Because the solid to liquid fat ratio at a given temperature depends on
fat composition, numerous machine and cream parameters have to be adjusted
according to the fat concerned. Vacreation tends to increase the range of globule
sizes. Small fat globules are harder to disrupt than large ones, hence the fat losses
in the buttermilk are higher with smaller ones. Very large fat globules, on the other
hand, are easily damaged under vacreation. The presence of salt in cultured cream
butter accelerates the autoxidation, the inverse effect occurring with salted sweet
cream butter. Overall, butter making depends on numerous interrelated factors
which have to be carefully adjusted against each other to keep the process
performance and quality parameters within their optimum ranges.

PACKAGING OF BUTTER:
Butter packing may be accomplished in bulk or retail packs. Because butter is
relatively stable and the profitability is lower than for many other dairy products, it
has been used as a balancing wheel for surplus milk fat. As such, the production
has commonly been out of balance with market needs; this is particularly so in
those countries where the dairy industry is geared for export rather than for supply
to the domestic market. The butter is placed in bulk packs – in older and smaller
butter plants, the butter, possibly batch-produced, is packed into 25-kg cartons.
Originally, a loose parchment lining was used, but this has been replaced by blue-
pigmented polyethylene bags, as this gives better protection. Nowadays, freshly
churned butter is collected first in a butter silo, with an auger to help feed the butter
to the pump, providing a break in the product flow so that any interruption in the
packing does not cause interruption. The bulk butter packing uses two-stage filling
to ensure accuracy and minimum giveaway. Smaller bulk packs can be produced to
comply with manual handling restrictions. The shelf-life of the bulk butter may be
extended considerably by storing it in frozen conditions at below 18 C. Most retail
butter is packed in either parchment or a parchment-aluminum foil laminate.
Parchment is cheaper but is permeable to moisture vapor and ultraviolet rays so
that the surface of the butter can suffer from both surface drying and oxidative
rancidity, the latter being reduced by the application of pigments such as titanium
dioxide to the outer surface of the parchment. Foil laminate protects the butter
from ultraviolet rays and only permits moisture vapor and gas interchange at the

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seams, thus aiding in a longer shelf-life. Some specialist butters may use
transparent films. Though the film gives good protection against moisture loss, the
risk of oxidative rancidity on the surface is higher than for parchment. Preformed
plastic containers, often polypropylene, are more expensive and tend to be used for
soft butters and hybrid products that would be too easily damaged in film wraps.
Butter portions, typically less than 20 g in weight, for catering and institutional
use, are filled either into foil laminates, where the consistency on filling can be
critical, or into plastic trays with a foil or aluminum film cover, in a form-filled
seal operation.

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