Is whole milk taken down to water and then solids and fat added back?!
Answers: I used to believe that whole milk was left as is when it comes out of a cow then pasturized and homogenized. However, recently I was told that it is done the same way as 1%, 2%, and skim; that it's taken down to water, fat, and solids and then the manufacturer adds back the components to make it whole. Is that true? If so, are there any milk manufacturers that don't do this.
I've been in food product development for 30 years and have visited many commercial dairys. I have never seen any one of them remove that much fat and then add it back. There are two reasons they wouldn't do it. 1. No place to store the fat until they are ready to add it back (it would solidify and could not be pumped) and 2. cost too much. No one would incur extra costs if not needed.
Now it is possible in fact probably that dairys standardize the fat content of their milk. That is say they try for 3.5%. They might get some milk at 3.7% and blend it with lower fat milk to give 3.5%. That's so they don't have to change nutritional labels all the time and the fact that cows give different amount of fat in their milk.
Whoever told you that was flat out wrong.
PhD Food Chemistry and Nutrition.
And where did you hear that from?