Assessing the Biological Value of Milk Obtained from Various Farm Animals

The present paper features a comparative analysis of the biological value of milk obtained from cows, goats, mares, and camels. The biological value of the milk was estimated by protein and lipid components using computational methods of food combinatorics. According to the chemical composition of the milk, camel’s milk proved to have the highest protein content (4.0%). Cow’s and goat’s milk were much poorer in protein: its content was by 0.8 and 1% lower, respectively. The lowest weight fraction of protein was in mare’s milk, which was by 1.8% lower than in camel’s milk, and also by 0.8 and 1% lower if compared to goat’s and cow’s milk. In addition, mare’s milk differed from other types of dairy raw products by its lowest fat content (1.0%), which was 4.1, 3.2, and 2.6% lower than the fat content of the milk obtained from camels, goats, and cows, respectively. The high fat content of camel’s milk was associated with its highest energy content (82 kcal), while the energy content in goat’s milk was 14 kcal, cow’s milk – 17 kcal and mare’s milk – 41 kcal. Camel’s and goat’s milk had a high content of solids (15% and 13.4%, respectively), whereas mare’s milk had only 10.7% and cow’s milk – 11%. The paper also introduces some data on the protein component of the milk obtained by using the amino acid scoring method. Mare’s milk proved to have the highest value of the amino acid composition index (0.6), which over-indexed the values for cow’s, goat’s, and camel’s milk by 0.13, 0.14 and 0.18, respectively. The biological value of the lipid component of the product is characterized by its qualitative composition of fatty acids. The highest values of the index of fatty acid composition belonged to mare’s milk: 0.58 and 0.42, taking into account the 3 and 5 calculation components. Camel’s milk was found inferior to mare’s milk by 0.9. The lowest values of the lipid composition index were observed for cow’s and goat’s milk. The research involved a complex calculation of the level of balance in the composition of milk. All the livestock animals were rated according to the Harrington’s scale of desirability as ‘satisfactory’ by the third component of the estimation, but the highest numerical values of the level of balance belonged to mare’s milk. To optimize this indicator, the authors recommend livestock animal milk as an ingredient of complex raw commodity products.