Components in milk and their health effects
Lipids
Fatty acids
In average, milk contains about 33 g total lipid (fat)/l [9]
(Table 1). Triacylglycerols, which account for about 95 %
of the lipid fraction, are composed of fatty acids of different
length (4–24 C-atoms) and saturation [8]. Each triacylglycerol
molecule is built with a fatty acid combination
giving the molecule liquid form at body temperature.
Other milk lipids are diacylglycerol (about 2% of the lipid
fraction), cholesterol (less than 0.5 %), phospholipids
(about 1%), and free fatty acids (FFA) accounting to less
than 0.5% of total milk lipids [8]. Increased levels of FFA
in milk might result in off-flavours in milk and dairy
products, and the free volatile short-chain fatty acids contribute
to the characteristic flavours of ripened cheese.