Milk is the whole, fresh, clean, normal lacteal secretion of the mammary glands for the feeding of the young of mammals. In the United States, the primary milk in commerce is cow’s milk.
Dairy products account for around 27% of the value of production and 4% of agricultural export earnings. Technological change, economies of scale and increased productivity have led to a large concentration of production: 5% of all dairy farms (those with more than 500 cows) supply 60% of all milk produced in the United States..
The responsibility for insuring the quality of this food product rests primarily with the individual states rather than the federal government.
The following definitions from its Grade A Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (1965) has been adopted by a majority of the states:
Milk is hereby defined to be lacteal secretion, practically from colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cow, which contains not less than 8.25 milk solids non-fat and not less than 3.25% milk fat.
Dairy processors are increasingly using milk as a raw material from which individual component can be extracted. Processors are refining raw milk and isolating its individual components in a manner analogous to the refinement of crude petroleum into its various individual component products.
Milk definition
