milk

thumb|A glass of cow milk thumb|Cows in a Rotolactor|rotary milking parlor Milk is a usually white liquid food (but can be shades of yellow, cream, pink, or even brown) produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest solid food. Milk contains many nutrients, including calcium and protein, as well as lactose and saturated fat; the enzyme lactase is needed to break down lactose. Immune factors and immune-modulating components in milk contribute to milk immunity. The first milk, which is called colostrum,

OverviewAI-generated

Milk is a white or yellow body fluid produced by the mammary gland of mammals. It is an emulsion classified as a food and food ingredient. The substance consists of liquid water, protein, fat, and sodium chloride. It serves as a dairy product and is used to make cheese and yogurt.

Nutritional data indicates that milk contains 76 kcal of energy, 2.7 g of fat, and 8.8 g of carbohydrates. It provides 4 g of protein and 0.5 g of salt. The sugar content is 8.2 g, with 0.2 g of fiber. Milk has a Nutri-Score of B and is classified as Nova group 1. Its carbon footprint is recorded as 1.3.

The topic is distinct from cow's milk, sheep milk, water buffalo milk, and goat milk. It is part of yogurt and quark. Milk is described in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary and the Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition. It is represented by the Unicode character 🥛 and the hashtag milk.

Synthesized by Vinony from 34 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, PubMed, Openfoodfacts, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Nutrition · Open Food Facts

Typical values per 100 g · averaged across 6,044 products

bNutri-Score

1NOVA · Unprocessed / minimally processed

Energy: 76 kcal
Fat: 2.7 g
— of which saturates: 1.6 g
Carbohydrates: 8.8 g
— of which sugars: 8.2 g
Fibre: 0.2 g
Protein: 4 g
Salt: 0.5 g

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via Open Food Facts · ODbL

Research

200,168 papers

Mother's Own Milk Versus Donor Human Milk: What's the Difference?ReviewCritical care nursing clinics of North America · 2024Parker LA, Koernere R, Fordham K et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.cnc.2023.09.002
Human milk for preterm infants.ReviewSeminars in fetal & neonatal medicine · 2025Modi NDOI: 10.1016/j.siny.2025.101634
Human Milk Fortification Strategies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.ReviewClinics in perinatology · 2023Fu TT, Poindexter BBDOI: 10.1016/j.clp.2023.04.006
Human Milk for the Term Newborn.ReviewClinics in perinatology · 2021Von Kohorn I, Flaherman VDOI: 10.1016/j.clp.2021.05.005
The Human Milk Metabolome: A Scoping Literature Review.Journal of human lactation : official journal of International Lactation Consultant Association · 2023Baumgartel K, Stevens M, Vijayakumar N et al.DOI: 10.1177/08903344231156449
Human Milk Sharing in the United States: A Scoping Review.Breastfeeding medicine : the official journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine · 2022Kullmann KC, Adams AC, Feldman-Winter LDOI: 10.1089/bfm.2022.0013
Microbiological Screening of Donor Human Milk.ReviewBreastfeeding medicine : the official journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine · 2023Schreiner C, Müller A, Dresbach TDOI: 10.1089/bfm.2023.0155
Human milk microbes: Strategies to improve delivery to the infant.ReviewSeminars in perinatology · 2021DeBose-Scarlett E, Bendixen MM, Lorca GL et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.semperi.2021.151451

via PubMed

~70 min read

Encyclopedic overview

54 sections

Contents

Etymology and terminology
Types of consumption
Nutrition for infant mammals
Food product for humans
History
Industrialization
Sources
Other animal-based sources
Production worldwide
Production yields
Price
{{Anchor|Physical and chemical properties}}Composition
pH
Lipids
Proteins
Salts, minerals, and vitamins
Calcium phosphate structure
Sugars and carbohydrates
Miscellaneous contents
Appearance
Processing
Pasteurization
Filtration
Creaming and homogenization
UHT
Nutrition and health
Cow's milk: variation by breed
Nutritional value
Disease
Allergy
Lactose intolerance
Evolution of lactation
Bovine growth hormone supplementation
Human health
Animal welfare
Fat content
Reduction or elimination of lactose
Additives and flavoring
Distribution
Australia and New Zealand
India
Pakistan
United Kingdom
United States
Packaging
Spoilage and fermented milk products
Powdered milk
Use in other food products
In language and culture
Non-culinary uses
Interspecies milk consumption
See also
References
Further reading

As an agricultural product, milk is collected from farm animals, mostly cattle, on a dairy. It is used by humans as a drink and as the base ingredient for dairy products. The US CDC recommends that children over the age of 12 months (the minimum age to stop giving breast milk or formula) should have two servings of milk products a day, and more than six billion people worldwide consume milk and milk products. The ability for adult humans to digest milk relies on lactase persistence, so lactose intolerant individuals have trouble digesting lactose.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “milk” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.