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Skimmed milk (
British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadl ...
), or skim milk (
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...
), is made when all the milkfat is removed from whole
milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modulat ...
. It tends to contain around 0.1% fat.


Background

Historically, skimmed milk was used for fattening pigs, and was recommended as "not only the very best supplement for growing pigs, but is of almost equal value for fattening purposes" as it "furnishes a complete protein" and makes the feed "more palatable".


Terminology

In the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
, milk is traditionally marketed and labelled as follows: * Whole milk (around 3.0–4% fat) – Plastic bottles marketed in blue packaging. * Semi-skimmed milk (around 1.8% fat) – Plastic bottles are marketed in green packaging. * Skimmed milk (around 0.1% fat) – Plastic bottles are marketed in red packaging. * Channel Island milk (around 5–5.5% fat) Often referred to as gold top, although this varies. Additionally, some supermarkets in the UK now market milk as: * 1% fat milk – Normally sold in purple or orange packaging. In the UK milk is sometimes still delivered by milkmen, it can delivered on the doorsteps by a milkman in the early hours of the morning in glass pint bottles with the colour printed foil lid indicating the milkfat content. Whole milk had plain silver foil, semi-skimmed milk had silver foil with red stripes and skimmed milk silver foil with a blue checker pattern. In the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
, milk is marketed primarily by fat content and available in these varieties: * Whole milk is 3.5% fat * 2% Reduced-fat milk * 1% Lowfat milk * 0% Non-fat milk (also called skimmed milk or fat-free milk) United States milk producers also use a color-coding system to identify milk types, usually with the bottle cap or colored accents on the packaging. Whole milk is often denoted by red, while 2% is most often colored blue. 1% and skim colors vary by region or dairy, with common colors for these lines being purple, green, yellow, pink, or light blue.


Production

Today, most skimmed milk is created by spinning whole milk in a
centrifuge A centrifuge is a device that uses centrifugal force to separate various components of a fluid. This is achieved by spinning the fluid at high speed within a container, thereby separating fluids of different densities (e.g. cream from milk) or ...
so that the fat droplets separate out.


See also

* Fat content of milk * Low-fat milk


References

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