If you’ve seen our tins of baby milk, you will have spotted that we talk about Whole Milk a lot. Why is Whole Milk so important in our recipe and what are the differences it makes? We’re breaking down the whole story behind what makes our recipe so unique.
What is baby milk made from?
Breastmilk is incredibly clever- at every stage of your baby’s life, it adjusts and provides everything they need for healthy growth and development. It is incredibly complex, with carbohydrates, proteins and fats but also millions of live cells, amino acids, enzymes, hormones, vitamins, minerals and antibodies. Scientists are still discovering more incredible things about breastmilk and how well our bodies can nourish our babies.
However, for many reasons, breastfeeding is not always an option, and that is where baby milk can come in. In the UK, the ingredients inside every variety of baby milks are highly regulated, with strict national and EU guidelines. This means that all formulas are made from a similar composition of carbohydrates, proteins, fats and other ingredients. What can differ, is what sources those ingredients come from.
What does Kendamil do differently?
Here at Kendamil, we are the only brand in the UK that uses Whole Milk as the primary ingredient in our formula recipe, arriving onsite at our factory from our trusted farms in liquid form. This means the processing of the milk begins at our factory, which is not common practice in the industry as most companies receive already processed dried milk powder.
As such an important ingredient, we take care to ensure our milk is sourced from the best farms. We work with over 220 British Red Tractor Certified farms, which allows us to trace where our milk comes from and be confident that the welfare of our animals is up to scratch.
These farming practices also have some incredible benefits for the milk; grass fed dairy cows produce milk that is higher in certain nutrients like fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. The Yorkshire and Lake District fields our cows graze in are the ideal home for happy cows.
What are the benefits of Whole Milk?
The biggest difference for us is that using Whole Milk provides an important source of fat, where other brands use 100% vegetable oils for the fat source in their recipes. This means we’re able to avoid the use of Palm Oil completely, and top up instead with a blend of essential fatty acids from Sunflower, Rapeseed and Coconut Oil instead. Avoiding Palm Oil, which is linked to deforestation in the rain forest, is a huge part of our brand's sustainability mission.
There are also a number of naturally occurring nutrients that are retained by using Whole Milk rather than just skimmed milk powder. Cows milk contains naturally occurring Milk Fat Globule Membranes (MFGM), a complex mixture of fats, proteins and carbohydrates that forms a protective layer around the fat globules in milk. It is uniquely found in mammalian milk, including breastmilk, and by using whole milk, we’re able to retain this in our formula.
On top of all this, using Whole Milk is what gives our baby milk its creamier texture and richer flavour. It is so good our Founder Ross has even been known to use it in his coffee from time to time!
What are the steps involved to turn whole milk into baby milk?
At Kendamil, our team of experts oversee every step of the process to turn Whole Milk into the powder you find on the shelves. There are a number of important steps that take us from farm to formula within 10 hours.
- Quality checks - the milk is immediately temperature and safety checked, and the fat and protein percentage is tested.
- Pasteurisation - we use a gentle heat treatment within an hour of arrival at the factory to ensure there are no potentially harmful bacteria in the milk
- Wet blending - we tumble in the additional liquid ingredients like whey and our oil blend
- Moisture reduction - to turn it into powder, we reduce the moisture content to below 3% through gentle heating and our unique ‘Filtermat Spray Dryer’ before it is checked again by our Quality Assurance team
- Final additions - any dry ingredients like some minerals are finally tumbled through before the milk is then tinned and packed ready for customers!
Using Whole Milk makes this a unique process, where we can ensure the quality at every single stage. With over 60 years of experience, Kendamil is proud to do things a little differently.
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IMPORTANT NOTICE: Breastfeeding is best. Kendamil Follow-on milk is only for babies over 6 months, and should be used as part of a mixed diet. Please talk to your Healthcare Professional.
