Introduction to the symposium on milk lipids

Milk lipids, often referred to as “milk fat,” have been of interest to man for centuries. Milk fat is a major component of bovine milk and most dairy foods and has the highest economic value of any of the milk constituents. In 1970, over 4 billion pounds of milk fat were produced by 12 million cows in the U.S. Practically all this fat was used in food products and provided ca. 16% of the total visible and invisible fat consumed by Americans. Although milk fat has been the subject of many investigations in the past, there is continuing interest in its complex composition and its chemical, physical and nutritional properties. The purpose of this symposium is to review contemporary knowledge of milk lipids and to focus attention on recent developments of interest to individuals associated with the field of edible fats and oils. One of eight papers presented in the symposium “Milk Lipids,” AOCS Meeting, Ottawa, September 1972.