Know Your Milk

As we get closer to reintroducing fresh pasteurized milk to Guyana, one of the most common misconceptions that we’ve encountered is related to the different fat content in milk (There is another discussion to be had about why not all fat is bad but we’ll save that for another post). 

Most of us know that there is Whole Milk and Skim Milk but many of us are not clear on what the difference is and how we get skim milk from whole milk. We’ve found in doing our market research that many believe that all milk has water added to it and that the various types of milk have differing amounts of water added. 

The reason for this is that we’ve historically always added water to milk in Guyana, however in the more developed (ABCE) countries, once water has been added to milk, it is illegal to refer to the end product as Milk.

Since we are looking to increase the quality of what is available locally, we will be adhering to this more honest way of referring to milk, that is to say no water will be added to our milk.

There are four main types of Milk:

Whole Milk (3.25% ) – As the name suggest this is milk in its truest form, with all of the goodness unaltered. Whole milk has 3.25% milkfat by weight – not as much as many people think. There are 150 calories in an 8-ounce glass of whole milk, with 8 grams of fat.

2% Milk (Reduced Fat) – Reduced-fat milk is labeled as 2% milk, which means the milkfat is 2 percent of the total weight of the milk. Here’s a nutrition fact to consider: An  8-ounce glass of 2 percent milk contains 5 grams of fat and has the same essential nutrients as every other type of milk.

1% Milk (Low Fat) – The difference between lowfat milk and whole milk  is the amount of fat in each serving. This also is reflected in the calories for each as well. An 8-ounce serving of lowfat milk contains 2.5 grams of fat and 100 calories, compared to whole milk, which has 8 grams of fat and 150 calories in the same amount.

Fat Free Milk (Skim Milk) – If you are looking for the same nutrients as whole milk, but want to cut calories and fat, fat free (also known as skim) milk is a good choice. In fact, because it has less fat, there are just 80 calories in fat free milk in each 8-ounce glass. The essential nutrients, including 8 grams of high-quality protein, remain intact.

We believe that the best milk is Whole Milk as there is a growing body of evidence showing that dairy fats are actually good for you, but we also believe in giving the customer choice so we will be working to offer Whole Milk and 2% Milk when fully operational.