Milk

📖 In short

Milk is one of the most useful foods, and people drink it all over the world. It has almost everything the body needs to grow and stay healthy. A baby's first food is its mother's milk.

🤩 Did you know?

Cow's milk is about 87% water and 13% nourishing solids.
A good dairy cow can give about 6 tonnes of milk a year.
Heating milk to kill germs is called “pasteurization”, after the scientist Pasteur.
Milk is white because it contains tiny drops of fat and protein that reflect light.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 Where does milk come from?

We mostly drink cow's milk, but people also drink goat's, sheep's and buffalo milk, and in Arab countries they drink camel's milk, which is very healthy.

🔍 From farm to home

Milk is collected on the farm with special machines, then cooled and taken to the factory, where it's heated a little to kill germs, then put into cartons and bottles and sent to the shop.

💡 What do we make from milk?

From milk we make lots of foods: yogurt, labneh, cheese, butter, cream and ice cream.

🎯 Why is it good for you?

Milk is rich in calcium, which builds bones and teeth, protein, which builds muscles, and important vitamins. But some people's stomachs can't handle milk, so they replace it with other foods.

🧩 Test yourself

1 What do we call heating milk to kill germs?

2 Which of these foods is made from milk?

3 A good dairy cow can give about ?? tonnes of milk a year.

4 Which picture shows “Milk”?

🫀 Discover more

📷 Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons

NIAID · CC BY 2.0